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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



TOBACCOISM 



OR 



HOW TOBACCO KILLS 



By JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG 

M. D., LL. D., F. A. C. S. 

Fellow of the Society of Hygiene of France, of the Royal Society 
of Medicine of Great Britain, of the American Medical 
Association, and of the National Geographical As- 
sociation, Late Member of the Michigan 
State Board of Health, Editor of 
"Good Health," Superin- 
tendent of the Battle 
Creek Sanitarium 



THE 

MODERN MEDICINE PUBLISHING CO. 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 
1922 



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Foreword 

A few years ago, a business man about forty years 
of age entered my office evidently in a state of con- 
siderable excitement. Without stopping to seat him- 
self, he said in a voice trembling with emotion, 

"Doctor, I am told that I have myocarditis (tobacco 
heart), with casts and albumin, and my physician will 
not promise me more than a year and a half or two 
years to live. Now I want you to tell me how to live 
so I can have ten years more in which to develop my 
business. I am head of a business enterprise which I 
induced my friends to invest in several years ago and 
thus far it has brought no returns. Development has 
been slower than we expected and it will take ten 
years more to make it a real success which will insure 
my friends a good return for their investments. I 
am absolutely indispensable to the business. If I fail, 
the whole thing will fail and my friends will lose 
every dollar of their money. I must have more time, 
then I shall "make good" and everybody will be 
happy. Tell me, doctor, how I can keep on my feet 
for just ten years more. I'll do anything you say, 
eat anything you order, follow any rules you may lay 
down to the letter. 

"I've stopped smoking, of course. I stopped at 
once when I found what it was doing to me. I never 
would have smoked one cigar if I had known that it 
was harmful. Now I've stopped. I'll soon be all right, 
won't I? Now, just tell me what I can do to live ten 
years more and make my business a success." 

As the speaker paused, he leaned forward in his 
chair and with an expression of anxiety and eager 
expectation, awaited an answer. I could only say to 



4 FOREWORD 

him, "My dear sir, we will do our utmost for you, but 
the trouble is, your safety margin is used up, your 
reserve is gone. Your heart, liver and kidneys have 
carried such a heavy burden, done so much overwork 
for years that they are worn out. Your blood-vessels 
are hardened and shrunken, greatly increasing the 
work of the heart, while the heart is degenerated and 
weakened, the usual effects of nicotine; and so a 
vicious circle is formed. You are like a man whose 
once great bank balance of millions has been reduced 
by extravagance to a few cents. His fortune is gone. 
Economy and reform will not bring it back. We will 
do our best for you. But with heart and kidneys 
both so badly damaged, there is little on which to base 
an extended life expectancy." 

"But I've stopped smoking. I'll never touch it 
again. I'll soon be all right, won't I, with careful 
living? I can't leave my business. It will go to 
smash and ruin my friends who trusted me. Doctor, 
you must keep me going somehow. If you can't give 
me ten years, make it five. I can do something in 
five years. Make it five, Doctor. I must live long 
enough to make good and save my friends from loss.'" 

As I hesitated, seeking to find some word which 
would convey a little ray of hope for a despairing soul 
facing an awful tragedy, the man read my thoughts, 
and saw there was no hope. He sprang from his 
chair for a moment and strode back and forth in my 
office, pulling his hair out by the roots. Suddenly, he 
paused a few seconds, then, with a look of mingled 
terror, despair and indignation, he rushed at me, and 
shaking his clenched fist close in my face, he fairly 
shrieked, "Why didn't I know this before? Why 
didn't somebody tell me what tobacco would do to a 
man? I never dreamed there was any harm in it. 



FOREWORD 5 

Doctors smoke, preachers smoke ; everybody smokes ; 
I thought, of course, it must be harmless. If I had 
even dreamed that tobacco would injure my health or 
my business, I would have cut my throat as soon as 
I would have smoked. Why didn't I know this 
before?" 

With this shaking, screaming, figure before me, with 
blazing eyes glaring at me, I felt myself shriveling to 
a shred, a contemptible, cowardly wretch. I quailed 
and cowed before those piercing eyes. Here was a 
man who had lost his chance "to make good," be- 
cause he was ignorant of the subtle power of nicotine 
to destroy men and business. And he evidently felt 
that I was responsible for his undoing, because I had 
known and had not informed him. I feared his judg- 
ment was just. A sense of guilt overshadowed me. 
I determined to try to make amends. Hence this 
book. 

The Author. 



Preface 

Tobacco, in its various forms, is one of the most mis- 
chievous of all drugs. There is perhaps no other drug which 
injures the body in so many ways and so universally as does 
tobacco. Some drugs offer a small degree of compensation 
for the evil effects which they produce; but tobacco has not 
a single redeeming feature and gives nothing in return for the 
$1,500,000,000.00 which it costs the nation annually, besides 
the 100,000 lives which it probably destroys. 

It has long been known to medical men, chemists and 
pharmacists, that tobacco is one of the most deadly of all 
the many poisonous plants known to the botanist. Aside 
from its use by the devotees of the drug, practically its only 
use by man is for the killing of parasites on livestock, and 
the destructive pests, both animal and vegetable, which attack 
our orchards, gardens, and greenhouses. 

To please men and to kill parasites are the only uses of 
tobacco — its ultimate effects are the same in both cases. 

How marvelous the ability to so camouflage its venom 
that millions of men are made to believe harmless a weed 
which almost every other living creature than man, great 
and small, recognizes and avoids as a baneful poison ! 

Alcoholism, the opium habit and tobaccoism are a trio of 
poison habits which have been weighty handicaps to human 
progress during the last three centuries. In the United 
States, the subtle spell of opium has been broken by restric- 
tive legislation; the grip of the rum demon has been loosened 
by the Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution, but the 
tobacco habit still maintains its strangle-hold and more than 
one hundred million victims of tobaccoism daily burn incense 
to the smoke god. 

The battle against alcoholism was won by a campaign of 
education, the foundation for which was laid by that historic 



8 PREFACE 

body of eminent men of science, "The Committee of Fifty/' 
When subjected to the searching scrutiny of these competent 
and conscientious investigators and tried in the crucible of 
laboratory research, every one of the pseudo virtues of alco- 
hol vanished in smoke and out of the crucible rose a spectre 
of such forbidding aspect, that alcohol, thus stripped of its 
camouflage, stood naked before the world the hideous demon 
that it is ; and the men and women by whom civilization 
must be saved, if it is saved, set going the campaign of edu- 
cation which culminated in the achievement of a constitu- 
tional foundation for prohibition, one of the greatest steps of 
progress toward Race Betterment ever made. 

Tobacco has not yet been fully tried before the bar of 
science. But the tribunal has been prepared and the gather- 
ing of evidence has begun and when the final verdict is rend- 
ered, it will appear that tobacco is evil and only evil; that as 
a drug it is far more deadly than alcohol, killing in a dose a 
thousand times smaller, and that it does not possess a single 
one of the quasi merits of alcohol. No one even suggests 
that tobacco is a remedy for collapse, a food, a prop for the 
weak or an antidote for snake-bite, the plausible apologies for 
alcohol which so- long deceived the public as to its real 
character. 

Now that the brewer and the saloon have been eliminated, 
the time has come for a campaign against those kindred 
enemies of the race, the tobacconist and the smoking-room. 
It will doubtless be a long and bitter fight; but victory will 
be the final result, for civilization must be rescued from 
these destroying forces. This end will be attained only by 
scientific research and the patient education of the rising 
generation. Already progress is being made. A "Committee 
to Study the Tobacco Problem," comprising some of the 
ablest scientists in the world, has been organized and has 
begun the work of collecting and sifting the evidence which 
has already been developed and has set to work some of the 
world's most expert physiologists, chemists, psychologists, 



PREFACE 9 

educators, statisticians and other scientific experts in well- 
equipped laboratories, delving into every phase of the tobacco 
question. In due time their findings will be published and one 
more enemy of the race will stand before the public with 
its real character revealed, condemned by such authoritative 
evidence as cannot be impeached. But the writer feels that 
what is already indisputably known makes possible a very 
certain forecast of what the ultimate verdict will be. 

The following most interesting statement made in his 
annual address as retiring president of the American Acad- 
emy of Engineers by Dr. J. A. L. Waddell, D. S. C, D. E., 
LL.D., is one of the clearest and most significant pro- 
nouncements against tobacco which has appeared from non- 
medical scientific sources (Scientific Monthly, July, 1918) : 

"While the efforts of certain scientists to prohibit (pre- 
vent?) the use of tobacco have proved a failure, as far as 
the populace is concerned, they have succeeded in convincing 
thinking men that the effect of nicotine in the system is to 
reduce materially one's mental acumen; consequently, a 
very large percentage of the scientists and engineers of today 
do not use the weed. As a direct result of this there is a 
small but quite appreciable augmenting of their individual 
output." (Italics ours). 

Evidently the campaign against the tobacco plague is mak- 
ing progress. Men of the training and standing of Dr. 
Waddell do not make random or ill-considered statements. 
Dr. Waddell gives us the results of his observations of the 
habits of scientists and engineers, men whose professional 
duties are most exacting and often exhausting. It is most 
encouraging to know that "a very large percentage" of these 
men of unusual knowledge, as well as highest intelligence, 
the leaders in scientific progress, are convinced of the evils 
of tobaccoism and "do not use the weed." 

This observation is quite in harmony with that of Dr. 
William Mayo, the eminent surgeon, who on one occasion 
when entertaining a company of surgeons in his home re- 



10 PREFACE 

marked, "It is customary, as we all know, to pass around 
cigars after dinner, but I shall not do it. I do not smoke, 
and I do not approve of smoking. If you will notice you will 
see that the practice is going out among the ablest surgeons, 
the men at the top. No surgeon can afford to smoke." 

When 'the whole truth is known about tobacco, and every 
man, woman and child in this great Republic has been made 
acquainted with the appalling facts about this noisome weed, 
the vocation of the tobacconist will become as unsavory as 
that of the saloonist, and in due time an enlightened society 
will purge itself of this unclean and hateful thing. 

Besides presenting a summary of what is already known 
and established by scientific research and medical observation 
respecting the influence of tobacco upon the physical well- 
being of men, the writer has undertaken to point out effective 
methods by which the victims of the tobacco habit may make 
a quick and permanent escape from its toils, when the desire 
exists so to do. The methods suggested are not experi- 
mental ; they have been tested and found of real service at 
the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where more than twenty 
thousand sufferers from the tobacco habit have been received 
as patients, and have, been successfully treated by the 
methods recommended. 

In compiling the facts and experimental observations which 
modern scientific research has developed in relation to to- 
bacco, free use has been made of the numerous books and 
other contributions on this subject which have appeared 
in recent times. Of the scores of authorities consulted, the 
writer is especially indebted to a 'most valuable treatise by 
Gy, of Paris, "L'Intoxication par le Tabac," in which is 
summarized much of the most important data which scien- 
tific inquiry has developed. J. H. K. 

Battle Creek, October, 1921. 



Contents 

A Brief History of the Tobacco Habit 13 

The Recent Rapid Growth of the Tobacco Habit 15 

The Composition and Properties of Tobacco 17 

The Composition of Tobacco Smoke 18 

Nicotine Not Destroyed in Smoking 18 

Effects of Tobacco Upon Micro-Organisms 25 

Tobacco Deadly to Animals 25 

Tobacco a Virulent Poison to Man 32 

Poison in the Old Pipe 34 

Is Nicotine Absorbed ? 34 

Dose of Nicotine Fatal to Man 35 

Distoxicated Tobacco 36 

The Toxicity of Oriental Tobaccos 37 

Does the Body Become Immune to Tobacco? 37 

How Tobacco Disorders Digestion. 40 

Tobacco Dyspepsia 42 

The Effect of Tobacco upon the Intestine 42 

Smoking Destroys Appetite 43 

The Damage Tobacco Does to the Liver 45 

The Destructive Effects of Tobacco upon the Lungs.... 49 
Smoking Leads to Consumption 51 

Destructive Changes in the Heart and Blood-Vessels 

Caused by Nicotine 56 

Degeneration of the Large Arteries 58 

The Smoker's Heart 58 

Tobacco Angina Pectoris 62 

The Old Smoker's Heart 67 

Soldier's Heart 68 

The Destructive Effects of Tobacco on the Blood.... 71 

Tobacco and Bright's Disease 72 

Effects of Tobacco upon the Brain 77 

Vertigo a Very Common Symptom in Smokers 78 

Tobacco Epilepsy 79 

Tobacco Neurasthenics 81 

Tobacco Headache S3 

Loss of Word Memory 83 

Smoker's Euphoria 85 

Tobacco Lessens Efficiency 86 

11 



12 CONTENTS 

Tobacco Inspiration 88 

Tobacco Blindness 90 

Tobacco Deafness 93 

Why Athletes in Training Do Not Smoke ..... 95 

All Experts Avoid Tobacco 97 

Football Players Avoid Tobacco 98 

The Evil Effects of Tobacco upon Nutrition 103 

Tobacco Destroys the Sex Glands and Hinders Re- 
production 104 

The Effects of Tobacco upon Growth 106 

Tobacco No Protection Against Infection, But the 

Reverse 109 

Tobacco a Cause of Acne 112 

Tobacco a Cause of Diabetes 112 

Tobacco Cancer 113 

The Smoker's Legacy 113 

Tobacco a Cause of Race Degeneracy 117 

Tobacco and Longevity 118 

Women Smoke Less than Men and Live Longer 119 

Use of Tobacco by Women 120 

Tobacco a Real Narcotic 124 

Tobacco-Using a Drug Habit 125 

The Moral Effects of Tobacco-Using 128 

The Enormous Economic Waste from Tobacco 133 

Apologies for the Tobacco Habit 134 

Does a Man Need Soothing? 135 

How to Stop Smoking 139 

Stumbling Blocks 154 

Tobacco "Cures" 160 



A Brief History of the Tobacco Habit 

Tobacco was used by the American aborigines in 
connection with certain religious ceremonies. There 
is no evidence that it was ever so generally and 
freely used by the Indians as by the present inhabi- 
tants of this country. 

Columbus saw the first smokers when he discov- 
ered America. Ramon Pane, a monk who accom- 
panied Columbus on his second voyage, observed 
the practice of snuff-taking, and the practice of 
chewing was noted by a party of Spanish explorers 
in 1502 when approaching South America. 

Ralph Lane, the first governor of Virginia, was 
the first English smoker. He presented a pipe and 
tobacco to Sir Walter Raleigh, who soon acquired 
the habit and started in England a vice which has 
become a menace to the future of the human race. 
Historians tell us that Raleigh smoked a pipe just 
before he ascended the scaffold. It is certainly a 
pity that his vice did not perish with him. 

The white race has made no original discoveries 
in methods of using tobacco. Smoking, chewing, 
snuff-taking, are all poison habits borrowed from 
the ignorant savages who once peopled the West- 
ern Hemisphere. 

13 



14 TOBACCOISM 

Sir Walter Raleigh helped to create a demand for 
the weed by smoking or "drinking" tobacco, as it was 
then called, in public and private. 

King James beheaded Sir Walter for treason and 
tried to stop the use of tobacco by means of a 
"counter blaste" in which he condemned tobacco- 
using as "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful 
to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the 
lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest 
resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that 
is bottomless." 

Tobacco was extolled as the panacea for ail human 
ills. A veritable tobacco "craze" seized the country. 
In London there were more than seven thousand to- 
bacco shops. 

King James, by royal edict opposed the practice, but 
the shrewd business methods of the promoters of the 
tobacco traffic kept the practice alive. 

King James evidently had a very healthy aver- 
sion to the weed. He declared, "Surely, smoke be- 
comes a kitchen far better than a dining chamber." 

The spread of the practice during the 17th cen- 
tury was so rapid that numerous sovereigns thought 
it necessary to make efforts to suppress it. The 
Sultan of Turkey (Amurath IV.), prohibited smok- 
ing and condemned smokers to death. In Russia 
(Michel III.) smokers were punished by cutting 
off their noses. The Shah of Persia (Abbas II.) 
made equally stringent laws against tobacco, and 
Pope Urban VIII. anathematized smoking in church. 



HISTORY OF THE TOBACCO HABIT 15 

In spite of the opposition of King James and his 
successors, Charles I. and Charles II., the culture 
and use of tobacco increased until the tobacco plan- 
tations in the colonies exceeded in size all other 
crops together. The habit grew during the period 
of the commonwealth, and even Cromwell smoked. 
At Eton the boys had lessons in smoking every 
morning and a pupil was "Soundly whipped be- 
cause he refused to smoke. " 

In the time of Queen Anne, snuff-taking was in- 
troduced. The soldiers returning from the Penin- 
sular war brought in the practice of cigar smoking 
and in like manner the cigarette habit returned 
with the army from the Crimea. 

Some of the Puritans smoked, but the Quakers 
always opposed the use of the weed, and the Wes- 
leyan conference forbade its preachers to smoke, 
chew or take snuff as early as 1795. 

The cigurette habit was introduced into this 
country by foreign visitors to the Centennial Ex- 
hibition in 1876, since which time it has spread 
with astonishing rapidity among all classes, espe- 
cially the young. 

The Recent Rapid Growth of the Tobacco Habit 

Within the last quarter of a century, the growth 
of the tobacco habit in all parts of the world, and 
particularly in the United States, has been phe- 
nomenal.. 

The world's production of tobacco was in 1894, 
1,560,000,000 pounds; 1913, 2,722,000,000 pounds. 



16 TOBACCOISM 

Increase, 1,162,000,000 pounds or an increase of 
74 per cent in 19 years. 

In the United States the production of tobacco 
was in 1894, 360,000,000 pounds; 1914, 1,034,000,- 
000 pounds; 1920, 1,508,000,000 pounds, an in- 
crease in 26 years of 319 per cent. 

The per capita consumption of tobacco in the 
United States in 1880 was 80 ounces; in 1914, it 
was 112 ounces, and in 1920, about 180 ounces. 

The following table compiled by the Census 
Bureau shows the enormous increase of the ciga- 
rette habit in ten years as shown by the number 
manufacured : 

1902—2,971,360,447. 
1906—4,511,997,137. 
1910—8,644,557,090. 
1920—62,000,000,000. 

The above figures show an increase of more 
than 59,000,000,000 cigarettes in 18 years or nearly 
2,000 per cent, an unparalleled example of rapidity 
in the spread of a disease-producing vice. Con- 
tinued increase at the same rate will produce in 
the year 1930, seventeen cigarettes daily for every 
one of the 115 million men, women and children 
now living under the American flag. 

Of the 62,000,000,000 cigarettes manufactured in 
1920, 46,000,000,000 were consumed in this country 
(Department of Commerce), or 460 cigarettes for 
every man, woman and child in the United States. 



The Properties of Tobacco 

The several varieties of tobacco differ greatly in 
the amount of nicotine which they contain, as shown 
by the following table published by the American 
Druggist : 

Nicotine Content of Different Tobaccos 

Per cent of 
Nicotine 

American Chewing Leaf : .93 

Syrian Tobacco Leaf 1.09 

Chinese Tobacco Leaf 1.90 

Turkish Coarse Cut 2.50 

Golden Virginia (whole strips) 2.50 

Gold Flake Virginia 2.50 

Navy Cut (light) 2.53 

Light Kentuckian 2.73 

Navy Cut (dark) 3.64 

Best "Bird's Eye" 3.93 

Best Shag (a) 4.90 

Cut Cavandish (b) 4.97 

Best Shag (b) 5.00 

Algerian Tobacco (a) 8.81 

French Grown Tobacco 8.71 

Algerian Tobacco (b) 8.90 

From the above it appears that the nicotine con- 
tent of tobacco varies between 1 and 9 per cent, 
according to the variety of tobacco. In general, 
pipe tobacco contains the most nicotine. 

17 



18 TOBACCOISM 

The average nicotine content of all tobaccos is 
probably about 3 per cent. The billion pounds of 
tobacco raised in the United States annually, con- 
tains, then, 20 to 30 million pounds of nicotine, 
each drop of which carried death-dealing properties 
second only to those of prussic acid, the deadliest of 
drugs. 

The Composition of Tobacco Smoke. 

The burning of tobacco in pipe, cigar or ciga- 
rette, gives rise to various substances which are 
not originally found in the tobacco leaf. Accord- 
ing to Dr. J. Dixon Mann, F. R. C. P. (British Medi- 
cal Journal, 1908) tobacco smoke contains a formidable 
list of poisons among which are the following: 
Nicotine Prussic acid 

Pyridine bases Carbon Monoxide 

Ammonia Sulphuretted hydrogen 

Methylamine « Carbolic acid 

The United States Dispensatory notes in addi- 
tion to the above 

Marsh gas Parvolin 

Nicoline Coridin 

Lutidin Rubidin 

Collidin Viridin 

Three other poisons, pyrrol, formic aldehyde and 
furfurol are mentioned by Arnold. 

Nicotine Not Destroyed in Smoking, 

It thus appears that tobacco smoke contains not less 
than nineteen poisons, every one of which is capable 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 19 

of producing deadly effects. Several of these, nico- 
tine, prussic acid, carbon monoxide and pyridine are 
deadly in very small doses so that the smoker cannot 
possibly escape their toxic effects. To these poisons 
are attributable the various destructive effects upon 
heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and other bodily organs 
that are described in succeeding chapters. 

The idea generally held that the nicotine is prac- 
tically destroyed so that little of the poison is 
absorbed has been shown to be an error. The 
London Lancet, one of the leading medical jour- 
nals of the world, a few years ago made a care- 
ful study of the composition of tobacco smoke as 
determined by improved methods of chemical 
analysis. It was found that tobacco smoke always 
contained nicotine, the amount varying with the 
variety of tobacco and the mode of using. Some 
tobaccos gave off in the smoke only 10 per cent 
of their nicotine content, while the smoke of others 
contained four-fifths of the total nicotine present. 
Pipe smoke contained most nicotine, sometimes 
more than 2 per cent. Cigar smoke contained less 
and the cigarette least. 

Cavendish smoke contains more than 4.00 per 
cent of nicotine and Perique 5.3 per cent. 

But the cigarette was found to contain another 
active poison, furfurol, which though less active 
than nicotine is fifty times as toxic as alcohol 
(Lancet). In very minute doses it produces stag- 
gering, trembling and twitching. Larger doses 



20 TOBACCOISM 

produce convulsions resembling those of epilepsy 
and muscular paralysis. So what the cigarette 
lacks in nicotine it makes up in furfurol. 

Furfurol is the characteristic ingredient of bad 
whisky. It is highly pungent and acts as a pow- 
erful irritant to the mucous membrane of the 
throat. There is as much of this poisonous fur- 
furol in the smoke of one Virginia cigarette as in 
two ounces of whiskey. (Lancet.) 

It is interesting to note that the symptoms 
characteristic of furfurol tally closely with those 
which result from cigarette smoking. (Lancet.) 

The British Medical Journal has shown that 
cigar smoke contains less nicotine than pipe smoke 
because the nicotine is condensed in the stump. 
Analysis shows that a cigar stump contains five 
times the original amount of nicotine. After the 
first half of the cigar has been smoked, the re- 
maining half contains most of the nicotine of the 
whole and further smoking results in the in- 
halation of much nicotine. 

Carbon monoxide and ammonia are other poisons 
found in very appreciable quantities in tobacco smoke. 
The first named is a highly active blood poison; it 
damages the red cells of the blood and thus produces a 
condition akin to suffocation. 

Acrolein, a highly irritating poison, is produced by 
the burning of cigarette paper. 

A cigarette weighing one gram gives off, when 
smoked, more than half a grain of nicotine, half 




<£ ? 







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THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 21 

a grain of ammonia, and one-seventh of a grain 
of pyridin. 

An ounce of tobacco produces, when smoked, 
one-fifth pint of carbon monoxide. 

Tobacco smoke contains one-sixteenth of 1 per 
cent, of formaldehyde, according to Dr. Arnold 
(London Lancet). 

According to Dr. Spitzka, the smoker of ciga- 
rettes who "inhales," may absorb so much as 79 
per cent, of the nicotine of the smoke, which in 
turn may contain half or even more of the nico- 
tine content of the tobacco, besides pyridine, carbon 
monoxide and other worse poisons. 

Tobacco More Poisonous Than Deadly 
Nightshade. 

Deadly nightshade belongs to the same bo- 
tanical class of plants, but is less poisonous than 
tobacco; yet who would think of smoking this 
noxious weed. 

The habitual smoker lives in a chimney, or 
rather, he himself becomes a part of a chimney 
in which is burned a poisonous weed. 

In view of the above facts it is evident that 
every package of cigarettes ought to bear a skull 
and cross bones and should be marked "deadly 
poison" like "Rough on Rats" and other deadly 
drugs. 

Poisonous Effects of Tobacco on Plants. 

In an article published in Die Umschau a few 
years ago (1911), Prof. Molisch, an eminent scien- 



22 TOBACCOISM 

tific authority, summarized the results of an ex- 
haustive research upon the effects of tobacco 
smoke upon growing plants. We quote the fol- 
lowing condensed summary of these interesting 
observations from the Scientific American Supplement 
(Sept. 23, 1911): 

Tobacco Intoxicated Plants. 

"Very young seedlings of peas (Vicia Sativa), 
about one-tenth-inch high, were placed on a piece 
of tulle, which was stretched over the mouth of a 
jar so nearly filled with water that most of the 
roots were immersed, while the stem and seed 
leaves were above the cloth. A large beaker glass 
of more than one gallon capacity was inverted 
over the jar, with its mouth resting on a plate 
and sealed by a shallow layer of water. The op- 
eration of. covering the jar with the beaker was 
conducted in front of an open window, in order 
to fill the vessel with pure air. The beaker was 
then slightly tipped and three mouthfuls of to- 
bacco smoke were blown into it through a bent 
glass tube. Another jar similarly planted and 
covered, but not smoked, served as an object of 
comparison. Both beakers with their contents 
were covered with zinc covers which completely 
excluded the light, and were kept in the green- 
house at a temperature of 60 to 65 deg. F. Six 
days later the two jars presented the appearance 
shown (see cut) in which the injurious effect of 
the tobacco smoke is startlingly evident. 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 23 

"The plants in the left hand jar, which had been 
exposed to the smoke, were greatly stunted and 
their thick stalks grew obliquely, horizontally, or 
even downward, while their buds showed scarcely 
a trace of the red tint of anthocyan which tinged 
most of the buds of the plants which had grown 
in pure air. 

"When the seedlings are grown in water, a 
single mouthful of tobacco smoke is sufficient to 
produce a marked effect and, what is more sur- 
prising, if the beaker is filled with tobacco smoke, 
rinsed with water, allowed to stand 24 hours, and 
then filled with pure air and inverted over the 
young plants, an appreciable effect is produced by 
the vaporization of ingredients of the tobacco 
smoke which have condensed on the inner sur- 
face of the beaker and have not been removed 
by washing. 

"Very similar results were obtained with seed- 
lings of peas, pumpkins and beans. The accom- 
panying cuts show the enormous effect upon the 
growth of these plants. 

"The experiments show plainly that tobacco 
smoke greatly diminishes the length and increases 
the thickness of the stem, and destroys its natural 
negative geotropism, i. e., its tendency to grow 
vertically upward. The smoked seedlings often 
assume a horizontal or inclined position, an ap- 
pearance quite similar to that observed by Nel- 



24 TOBACCOISM 

jubow and Richter in young plants growing in 
laboratory air. 

"The effect of laboratory air upon plants has 
been attributed, probably correctly, to traces of 
illuminating gas and the products of its combus- 
tion. Tobacco smoke unquestionably exerts a 
similar effect and in future experimentation with 
plants more attention must be paid to this in- 
fluence. 

"The fact that greenhouse plants are apparently 
not injured by fumigation is due to the circumstance 
that the influence of the tobacco smoke is usually ex- 
erted only for a night, after which the house is thor- 
oughly ventilated, and that the damp walls and soil 
purify the air by absorbing the smoke. 

"But in ill-ventilated rooms in which tobacco 
is often smoked in large quantities, and in which 
no such rapid absorption takes place, plants must 
suffer greatly. The peculiar morbid appearance 
exhibited by plants growing in dwellings, restau- 
rants and shop windows is due partly to dark- 
ness, dust, and dryness, and partly to impurities 
derived from illuminating gas and tobacco smoke." 

It is probable that the toxic effects of tobacco 
smoke upon plants was not due to nicotine, but 
to pyridin, sulphuretted hydrogen and carbon monox- 
ide, which are found in the smoke of all varieties of 
tobacco and in about the same proportions, and which 
must act as injuriously upon human beings as upon 
plants, and especially upon young children and infants. 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 25 

Effects of Tobacco upon Micro-Organisms 

It is interesting to note that certain forms of 
plant life, bacteria, are even more susceptible to 
the poisonous effects of tobacco than are higher 
plants. Molisch found that: 

"The rapid influence of tobacco smoke on 
bacteria is especially evident in luminous bacteria. 
A piece of filter paper three inches square is 
moistened with a few drops of a strongly lumin- 
ous bouillon culture of the marine bacterium 
Pseudomonas lucifera. In a dark room the round 
spot formed by the liquid appears brightly lumin- 
ous to an eye accustomed to the darkness. If the 
paper is placed in a glass box containing a little 
tobacco smoke, and observed in a dark room, the 
spot usually becomes invisible within less than 
one minute, although a similar preparation in pure 
air continues to shine with undiminished bright- 
ness for an hour or more. If, immediately after 
the disappearance of the light, the paper is re- 
moved from the smoke box and placed in pure 
sea water, the luminosity usually returns in a 
minute or two. In this case the tobacco smoke 
acts similarly to ether or chloroform, by exerting 
an immediate and temporary narcotic effect upon the 
bacteria, but it does not kill them, and so has 
no value as a disinfectant." 

Tobacco Deadly to Animals. 

Molisch experimented upon low forms of animal 
life and found that tobacco exerts a more deadly 



26 TOBACCOISM 

influence upon these organisms than upon plants. 
He devised a cell by means of which "the micro- 
organisms contained in a suspended drop of water 
can be observed under the microscope, while ex- 
posed to the direct influence of tobacco smoke. 
The cell is fumigated only once, at the beginning 
of the experiment. In these conditions the motions 
of certain species of amoeba begin to flag in from 
five to ten minutes. The organisms assume a 
spherical form, protrude hyaline processes, and 
finally fall to pieces about thirty minutes after ex- 
posure to tobacco smoke. The stemless bell ani- 
malcule (Vorticella) ceases swimming after fifteen 
minutes' exposure and continues merely to move 
its cilia, and dies in two or three hours." 

The learned editor of the Scientific American 
very justly adds: "If the living substance of 
plants and of minute animals is so strongly affected 
by very small doses of tobacco smoke it is hardly 
credible that saturation of the mouth and the or- 
gans of respiration with tobacco smoke, continued 
many years, can be entirely free from injurious 
effects." 

That tobacco is a poison to animals has long 
been known. A decoction of tobacco is used to 
destroy lice and other parisites which infest sheep 
and cattle. Sometimes the careless use of the drug 
for this purpose leads to death of the animals. 

Greenhouse men burn tobacco in their propa- 
gating houses to kill green flies and other para- 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 27 

sites. The destruction of parasites is the one useful 
service which tobacco is capable of rendering as was 
facetiously pointed out by Dr. H. W. Wiley in Good 
Housekeeping. 

"When old Hans Schmidt, who was acknowledg- 
ed to be the meanest man in the neighborhood, had 
been placed in the grave, and the audience, ac- 
cording to the good old Pennsylvania custom, 
had waited long for some good neighbor to say 
something good of him so that the grave might 
be filled, Gustave Schultz ended the embarrass- 
ment by walking to the edge of the grave, taking 
off his hat, and saying, 'Well, I can say joost 
one good ting about Hans, he wuzzn't always as 
mean as he wuz sometimes.' So can I say one 
good thing about tobacco: A decoction of to- 
bacco is speedy death to lice and ticks and makes 
an ideal dip for pigs and poultry." 

The British Medical Journal reports that to- 
bacco leaves have been successfully used as a pro- 
tective against plague-infected fleas in India. 

Dr. Pidduck states that leaches die instantly 
when made to suck the blood of smokers. 

Bees, flies and other insects are quickly killed 
by directing upon them a stream of tobacco smoke. 

A drop of nicotine on the shaven skin of a rab- 
bit will produce death in a short time. 

According to Traube a minute quantity of nico- 
tine injected into the jugular vein of an animal, 
caused the blood pressure to rise to two and one- 
half times the normal after first dropping. 



28 TOBACCOISM 

The Journal of the American Medical Association 
says (May, 1917) : 

"Experimental research has confirmed that to- 
bacco may induce a tendency to convulsions in 
animals. A number of research workers have re- 
cently reported cellular changes in the cortex of 
rabbits and guinea-pigs long submitted to slow to- 
bacco intoxication." 

Two French scientists, M. M. Fleig and de 
Visme, have been experimenting on the effects of 
tobacco in various forms, when administered to 
dogs, rabbits, rats and guinea-pigs. 

The effect of causing a dog to inhale the smoke 
of tobacco was found to be to cause first a marked 
fall, then a great rise in blood pressure, great con- 
traction of the vessels of the kidneys and a dila- 
tation of the vessels of the brain. The intensity 
of the effects produced was in proportion to the 
amount of nicotine contained in the tobacco. 

According to Vibert, the cat and the rabbit are 
killed by one-sixth of a drop, a dog one-half drop 
to two drops. 

According to Leblanc a horse is killed in four 
minutes by eight drops. 

Planas showed that the poisonous properties of 
nicotine are very rapidly and strongly manifested 
when it is applied to the rectum or to the con- 
junctiva. 

According to Guinier, death occurs most rapidly 
after application of the poison to the trachea. 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 29 

A glass rod dipped in nicotine was applied to 
the throat of each of three young cats. The ef- 
fects were the same in each. Within six seconds 
the cats suffered from dyspnea and dragged the 
hind legs. Then general convulsions occurred. 
The sphincters were relaxed, froth appeared at the 
mouth, and at the end of fifteen seconds death 
occurred. 

Claude Bernard showed that one drop of nicotine 
applied to the cornea of an animal is sufficient to 
produce instant death. 

One drop of nicotine was applied to the eye 
of a white mouse and the eye of a sparrow. Both 
animals died instantly. 

Ritchie of William and Mary College reports 
the following observation: 

Two young guinea-pigs that were made to in- 
hale tobacco smoke from the fourth day after 
birth weighed on the forty-fourth day, 174 and 169 
grams (5.8 and 5.6 ounces), respectively, instead 
of 330 grams (11 ounces), which is the normal 
weight of guinea-pigs at that age. On the forty- 
fourth day, one of them died; the other was not 
subjected to any further inhalations; nevertheless, 
at the end of the third month, its weight was 
only 295 grams (9.8 ounces), instead of the normal 
weight, namely, 485 grams (16.2 ounces). 

"Jebrofsky, a Russian investigator, by means 
of an ingenious apparatus, compelled rabbits to 
smoke cigarette tobacco for a period of six to 



30 TOBACCOISM 

eight hours daily. Two animals died within a 
month, and showed changes in the nerve ganglia 
of the heart. Others established a tolerance simi- 
lar to that exhibited by human beings who be- 
come habitual smokers, but upon being killed 
at the end of five months, degenerative changes 
similar to those produced by the injection of nico- 
tine were found, viz., hardening of the blood- 
vessels. Loss in weight was also observed. There 
seems to be little doubt that tobacco smoke poison- 
ing is chiefly nicotine-poisoning." (Fisk.) 

But even as a dip for tick-infested cattle, tobacco 
is not always harmless. A Western farmer reported 
to the writer that he lost six highly valuable cows be- 
cause the man in charge of the "dipping" made the 
decoction double strength to make sure of good re- 
sults. - One of the animals died in the dipping tank. 
All the rest died within an hour. The tobacco per- 
formed its function efficiently. It is a good killer. 

Gouget (La Presse Medicale, 1906) gave to rab- 
bits small doses of a 10 per cent infusion of to- 
bacco which probably contained about one-half 
of 1 per cent of nicotine. Many of the rabbits 
died within a few weeks. The rabbits suffered 
convulsions and their blood vessels were degen- 
erated. 

Adler and Heusel gave rabbits nicotine in 
quarter grain doses. Degenerative changes in the 
aorta were noted after 18 to 25 doses. Lime was 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 31 

deposited in the walls of the large vessels and in 
some cases small aneurisms appeared. 

In general, animal experiments have shown that 
tobacco is a cardiovascular poison. 

Noel, Le Bon and others have shown that the 
toxicity of tobacco depends less upon the nicotine, 
its principal alkaloid, than upon the numerous 
other substances which are produced by the 
burning of tobacco. These authors have shown 
that tobacco smoke contains a crowd of noxious 
products. Le Bon isolated collidine and showed 
that one-twentieth of a drop of collidine is suf- 
ficient to quickly kill a frog, with symptoms of 
paralysis. "One cannot breathe the vapor of col- 
lidine even for a few seconds without experiencing 
muscular weakness and vertigo. " 

According to the same physiologist, the nausea, 
vomiting and headache produced by smoke are the 
result of the action of prussic acid. Prussic acid 
is found in tobacco in the proportion of three to 
eight milligrams (1/25 to 1/8 grain) in 100 grams 
(3-^ ozs.) of tobacco. 

Vohl and Eulenberg believe that most of the 
symptoms produced by tobacco smoke are due 
to prussic acid and collidine. 

Grenant killed a dog with tobacco smoke. He 
found the blood showing all the characteristics 
present in poisoning by carbon monoxide. 

Dudley attributed the effects of cigarette smok- 
ing to the same cause, carbon monoxide. Dudley 



32 TOBACCOISM 

also claimed that carbon monoxide is the most 
poisonous substance found in tobacco smoke. 

Marcelet has shown that one gram of tobacco 
(15 grains) in the form of a cigarette produces 
20 to 80 centimeters (1 to 5 cubic inches) of car- 
bon monoxide. A smoker who consumes 20 grams 
{ 2 /z ounce) of tobacco a day produces 1,600 to 
2,180 cubic centimeters (100 to 125 cubic inches) 
of the gas. 

The general conclusions drawn from the obser- 
vations made in recent years is that the intoxica- 
tion due to smoking is attributable not alone to 
the natural poisons of tobacco, but to tobacco 
smoke; that is, to the poisons produced by the 
combustion of tobacco. 

Tobacco a Virulent Poison to Man. 

Wood's Materia Medica (1860) states that in- 
stances of death are on record from taking a decoc- 
tion of one-half dram of tobacco. The fatal dose of 
nicotine was probably half a grain to a grain. Wood 
also states that fatal results have followed smoking 
and even the introduction of smoke into the rectum to 
excite bowel action. 

An absolutely dispassionate, coldly scientific, im- 
partial testimony comes from a standard work on 
"Materia Medica and Therapeutics" by John V. 
Shoemaker, A. M., M. D., a leading physician of Phila- 
delphia and one of the world's most eminent authorities 
on the effects of drugs, who says: 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 33 

"Tobacco is an acro-narcotic poison, acting en- 
ergetically, in small doses, upon persons unac- 
customed to its use. It is a nauseating emetic, 
being accompanied by great muscular relaxation ; 
the respiration and circulation are depressed, the 
temperature lowered, and the surface becomes cold 
and moistened with perspiration. * * * The nerv- 
ous system is early affected by the drug. The 
motor nerves are paralyzed progressively from the 
periphery to the central organs. The spinal and 
central nerves become affected, and inco-ordination, 
a staggering gait, and vertigo are prominent symp- 
toms of its toxic action. Finally, collapse and 
death may occur from paralysis of the heart or 
of the respiration. Poisoning has also followed 
the application of tobacco leaves to a wound." 

Says the London Lancet, "No smoker can be a well 
man." 

Said Professor Solly, an eminent London surgeon: 

"The profession has no idea of the ignorance of the 
public regarding the nature of tobacco; even intelli- 
gent, well-educated men stare in astonishment when 
you tell them that tobacco is one of the most power- 
ful poisons we possess. Now is this right? Has the 
medical profession done its duty? Ought we not as 
a body to have told the public that of all our poisons 
it is the most insidious, uncertain, and in full doses 
the most deadly?" 

"Nicotine is not the only poisonous substance 
present in tobacco, nor, bad as it is, is it the worst 



34 TOBACCOISM 

ingredient in the deadly drug. Carbon monoxide 
gas, prussic acid, and furfurol are some of the 
other poisons of tobacco. Some investigations of 
the London Lancet show that the most injurious 
forms of smoking are not those in which nico- 
tine prevails, but those in which there is a larger 
proportion of the irritant aldehydes, particularly 
the aldehyde furfurol, a substance to which many 
attribute the injurious effects of cheap liquors, 
and which is commonly distinctive of the smoke 
from cheap Virginia cigarettes." 

Poison in the Old Pipe. 

The British Medical Journal calls attention to 
the fact that if a smoker "resumes the use of a 
pipe which he has let alone for several weeks, 
and in which the tobacco juice has become com- 
pletely dried, he may imbibe a sufficient dose of 
the poison to cause vertigo accompanied by 
nausea, sometimes with diarrhea, cold sweats, 
palpitation, headache, and, above all, by a sense 
of burning and dryness in the mouth and throat." 

The insidious mischiefs wrought by tobacco are 
usually attributed to almost every cause but the 
right one. 

Is Nicotine Absorbed? 

Nicotine is readily soluble in water and hence 
is easily absorbed. The rapidity with which it is 
taken into the body and distributed by the blood 
is shown by the suddenness with which pallor, 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 35 

nausea and faintness take possession of the boy 
who for the first time essays to smoke a cigar. 
Another evidence is afforded by the strong to- 
bacco odor which emanates from the breath and 
skin of a tobacco user for many hours after the 
smoking of a single pipe or cigar. 

The mucous lining of the nose, mouth, lungs 
and air passages presents a very extensive absorb- 
ing surface, an area of 800 to 2,000 square feet, 
over which the whole volume of the blood is 
spread out every three minutes. 

It has been shown that one-half of the nicotine 
inhaled is absorbed. A man who smokes an ounce of 
tobacco daily may absorb seven to ten grains of nico- 
tine and probably in some instances more. 

Dose of Nicotine Fatal to Man. 

According to Dr. Copeland, authority on poisons, 
death has been produced by an enema containing less 
than a grain of nicotine. 

Melsens asserts that the smoke from half an 
ounce of tobacco contains a fatal dose of nicotine. 

A case is on record (Ann d' Hygiene, 1861) in 
which a murder was committed by forcing nico- 
tine into the victim's mouth. Death occurred in 
three to five minutes. 

Krocker reports that one thirty-second of a drop 
produced giddiness, nausea, vomiting, feeble pulse, 
intense muscular weakness, difficult breathing, cold 
extremities, partial loss of consciousness and other 
symptoms of impending collapse. 



36 TOBACCOISM 

A man who committed suicide by taking nico- 
tine into the mouth, dropped instantly to the 
floor insensible and died in three minutes. 

It is generally held that one drop of nicotine 
is the fatal dose for man. (Gy.) 

The usual effects of the first pipe or cigar af- 
ford all the evidence needed to establish the 
status of tobacco as a poison. The fact that these 
symptoms soon disappear if one continues to use 
the drug is no evidence that the drug ceases to pro- 
duce poisonous effects. The so-called "tolerance" 
established is simply a cessation of the reflex protest. 
The insidious mischief to heart, blood-vessels, lungs, 
liver and kidneys continues. 

Distoxicated Tobacco. 

Gy of Paris, undertook a few years ago, very 
extensive experiments to determine the facts with 
reference to denicotinized and distoxicated to- 
baccos. He showed in a paper presented to the 
Societe de Biologie that 4 c. c. (60 drops) of a 
maceration of Sweet Caporal, or 5 c. c. (75 drops) 
of distoxicated tobacco, would produce death. Two 
c. c. (30 drops) of a maceration of ordinary Caporal 
tobacco is a fatal dose. 

Sweet Caporal is half as toxic as ordinary Cap- 
oral. Five parts of distoxicated tobacco produces the 
same effect as four parts of Sweet Caporal. 

Gy showed that the effects of denicotinized 
tobaccos upon the stomach, liver, kidneys, lungs 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 37 

and nerves are essentially the same as other to- 
bacco, though their toxicity may be slightly re- 
duced. 

M. Lesieur, who made a careful study of this 
subject, said, "We think it gives the smoker a 
false sense of security to place on sale a toxic 
product under the name of denicotinized tobacco, 
tobacco which contains dangerous doses of nico- 
tine/' And Vitoux says that denicotinized to- 
baccos offer, instead of security against toxic 
symptoms, a veritable danger because of their 
reputation for innocuity. 

The Toxicity of Oriental Tobaccos. 

In the study of Oriental tobaccos, supposed 
to be less toxic than ordinary brands, Gy found 
that they possess no special advantages. They 
produce a very pronounced asthenia (prostration). 
This was noticed particularly in rabbits. 

One subject remained in a state of stupor for 
several hours, which led to investigation to as- 
certain whether opium was present. It was not 
found present, although all Oriental tobaccos may 
not be free from opium. 

Does the Body Become Immune to Tobacco? 

It is well-known that the body rapidly acquires 
a tolerance for tobacco as for opium and other 
narcotics. Most smokers doubtless entertain the 
idea that tolerance means immunity; that is, that 
when no unpleasant effects are felt, no harm is 



38 TOBACCOISM 

being done. It is true that there are poisons to 
which the body may be by training made immune. 
Such are snake venoms, some poisons produced 
by bacteria, and various organic poisons. The 
body may be gradually trained to make antidotes 
for these poisons, and thus render them inert and 
harmless; but it was proved by Gy, a French 
physiologist, that nicotine does not belong to this 
class. After some use of the drug the body ceases 
to remonstrate by acute and distressing symptoms, 
but the mischievous effects continue, steadily, in- 
siduously destroying the fine machinery of the 
body until heart, blood vessels, liver, kidneys, 
and other vital organs are so badly damaged that 
the vital functions can no longer proceed in a 
regular and normal fashion and then a medical 
examination reveals the fact, not that the subject 
has begun to suffer from nicotine poison, but that 
his body has been ruined by it. Every cell of the 
body, every tissue and every fibre, has been dam- 
aged. The vital reserve has been exhausted, the 
defenses of the body have been broken down and 
the living machine is irreparably injured. It may 
be possible to patch it up sufficiently to keep it 
going for a few years, but a large share of its 
working capacity, its efficiency, has been used up in 
carrying unnatural and unnecessary burdens and can- 
not be replaced. 

Dr. Gy fully demonstrated that no antitoxin 
is developed in the blood as the result of using 



THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO 39 

tobacco. This experiment was made: A rabbit 
was given full doses of tobacco infusion for several 
months. The serum from the blood of this rab- 
bit was then injected into the peritoneal cavity of 
another rabbit. A quarter of an hour later a dose 
of tobacco infusion sufficient to kill a rabbit in 
two minutes was given. The effects were just the 
same as in the animals which had not received 
the serum. The conclusion is drawn from this ex- 
periment that chronic tobacco intoxication does 
not give to the serum of the individual or of the 
animal any antitoxic properties. The apparent toler- 
ance is due simply to the fact that the immediate re- 
action is less violent. 

The first effects of the inhalation of tobacco 
smoke appear only the first time the inhalations 
are made; but a study of the effects of tobacco upon 
the heart and blood vessels by delicate instruments 
shows that in spite of the tolerance the usual reactions 
occur; that is, tolerance does not necessarily imply 
the absence of reaction, but simply the absence of 
intolerance. Tolerance means simply the tolerance 
of reaction. 



\ 



How Tobacco Disorders Digestion 

That tobacco smoking affects the stomach is 
not a new idea to any smoker who recalls the 
effects of his first cigar. The nausea and vomit- 
ing which the novice experiences, clearly in- 
dicate the disturbing influence of the filthy weed. 

Evidently tobacco arrests and paralyzes the 
normal processes of digestion and even reverses 
the action of the stomach as seen in vomiting, 

The pernicious effects of tobacco begin in the 
mouth. The salivary glands of the smoker are 
so exhausted that the saliva loses, to a large de- 
gree, its power to digest starch, its normal func- 
tion. The nicotine and empyreumatic oils in the 
smoke blunt the sensibility of the nerves of taste 
and smell and so destroy the gustatory reflex and 
lessen the formation of "appetite juice/' which 
Pavlov showed to be essential to normal diges- 
tion. 

Tobacco in small quantities has no effect upon 
the saliva, but in large doses interferes with its 
action. This has been shown by Gy and Cal- 
caterra. 

Roger has shown that there is a close relation 
between the functions of the salivary glands and 
the pancreas. 

These facts explain the gastro-intestinal dis- 
orders and the disturbances of assimilation which 
are very commonly seen in smokers. 



HOW TOBACCO DISORDERS DIGESTION 41 

Tobacco, by Incessant irritation, predisposes to 
mucous plaques and cancer. On this account 
syphilitics are forbidden to smoke. 

Tobacco smoking unquestionably encourages 
cancer of the lip by maintaining chronic irrita- 
tion. 

Granular pharyngitis and catarrh of the throat, 
sensibility to cold and dryness of the throat, are 
symptoms commonly observed in smokers. 

Huchard calls attention to the effects of to- 
bacco on the diaphragm, causing hiccough. 

The paralyzing effect of tobacco upon the 
stomach is well shown in the abolition of hunger. 
The Turk takes opium to abate the pangs of 
hunger when food is not attainable. Sailors and others 
use tobacco for the same purpose. (Combe.) 

Cannon and Carlson have shown that the sen- 
sation of hunger is associated with contractions 
of the stomach, the so-called "pangs" of hunger. 
Tobacco abolishes these contractions by paralyzing 
the stomach and in this way destroys the sensa- 
tion of hunger. This fact has been established by 
Carlson, who showed that in old smokers as well 
as those not accustomed to use tobacco, hunger 
pains and gastric contractions cease under the 
influence of smoking. Carlson's observations were 
made on a man with a large gastric fistula like 
that of Alexis St. Martin, and on specially trained 
subjects. 



42 TOBACCOISM 

Cramer proved that smoking slows the move- 
ments of the stomach. 

Pouchkine concluded that tobacco increases 
the quantity of gastric juice, but lessens its acid- 
ity, lowering the proportion of hydrochloric acid 
and diminishing the activity of the rennet ferment, 
and so does not aid digestion but hinders it. 

Osier observed loss of appetite in dogs dosed 
with nicotine. 

Tobacco smoke passed through a solution of 
pepsin or gastric juice lessens the rapidity of the 
action of pepsin. The addition of an infusion of 
tobacco to gastric juice produces a still more 
marked injurious effect. 

Nicotine causes exaggeration of peristalsis and 
may give rise to diarrhea. 

Tobacco Dyspepsia. 

Persons who smoke in the morning before break- 
fast, even very moderately, are likely to suffer 
from gastric symptoms, while others who smoke 
only after meals, to a much greater extent escape. 

The prolonged use of tobacco contributes in a 
very marked way to the development of gastric 
disturbances. 

Cramer reports finding in old smokers complete 
absence of gastric acid. 

The Effect of Tobacco Upon the Intestine. 

Laurent reports the following case: A man 27 
years of age, robust physique, began smoking 



HOW TOBACCO DISORDERS DIGESTION 43 

cigarettes at the age of 23 years. It took him a 
long time to become accustomed to their use. 
At the end of six months he suffered with diar- 
rhea, which resisted all treatment. He stopped 
smoking, and in less than eight days was well. 
Fifteen days afterwards he again began smok- 
ing, and the diarrhea reappeared at once. He 
repeated this experiment four times with just the 
same results. 

Another case reported by the same author: A 
student of 23 years, habitually of good health, 
has never experienced, any digestive trouble. Has 
good appetite, and bowels normal. When this 
young man, who does not smoke, finds himself 
in an atmosphere saturated with tobacco smoke, 
he is seized at once with diarrhea, which does not 
stop so long as he continues to inhale the to- 
bacco smoke. 

Smoking Destroys Appetite. 

More than forty years ago Hammond called 
attention to the fact that the use of tobacco 
lessened the consumption of food. On this ac- 
count it was claimed to be a means of economiz- 
ing food. To this argument the writer urged the un- 
answerable argument that life is due to tissue change. 
Without change, without consumption of energy, 
there is vital stagnation. The less activity, the 
less life. Anything that lessens tissue change, the 



44 TOBACCOISM 

assimilation and disassimilation of food, lessens 
life. 

Lord Rhondda, the British Food Controller, is 
reported as saying in defense of tobacco for the 
army, "Men would eat a great deal more if they 
did not have tobacco." Doubtless this is true ; 
and they would accomplish "a great deal more." 
And the Sun said, in promoting its pernicious To- 
bacco Fund: 

"It used to be said against tobacco and coffee 
that they were devils because they killed the ap- 
petite for food. Now, for the same reason, they 
are angels. Heroes drink a cup of Rio, grab a 
cigarette and go over the top." 

It has not been shown that tobacco and coffee 
make better soldiers. Whisky was once thought 
to be necessary for the fighting man. In the Great 
War, the American soldier fought without spirits 
and certainly showed no inferiority to either the 
English Tommies who were well supplied with 
rum, or the Germans who were fairly inundated 
with beer. And there were many soldiers who did 
not smoke and showed superiority in marching 
and fighting power to those who did, as many 
officers will testify. General Miles, a well sea- 
soned soldier, is a non-smoker, and during the 
war stated to the writer that he regarded to- 
bacco as an enemy to the soldier. The general 
stated that he abandoned the cigar when he saw 



HOW TOBACCO DISORDERS DIGESTION 45 

General Grant in the last stages of smoker's can- 
cer of the throat. 

It is evident then, that tobacco can be in no 
way an aid to digestion. Its influence can be 
only in a high degree detrimental. The notion 
that an after-dinner cigar aids digestion is wholly 
without scientific foundation. 

The deleterious effects of tobacco upon diges- 
tion are doubtless in part due to its effect upon 
the sympathetic nerves. 

Pouchkine has shown that tobacco lessens the 
secretion of gastric acid (HC1) by the stomach and 
the activity of the gastric juice and so greatly 
hinders digestion. 

The Damage Tobacco Does to the Liver. 

The first pipe or cigar would probably prove a 
fatal dose except for the fact that the liver pos- 
sesses a remarkable function by means of which it 
is able to destroy the poisonous properties of the 
nicotine and other poisons derived from tobacco. 

This distoxicating power of the liver resides 
in its cells. Alcohol, creasote, morphia, the poi- 
sons produced by putrefactive bacteria, in fact, 
all organic poisons, are acted upon by these won- 
derful cells in such a way as to destroy or very greatly 
decrease their pernicious qualities. 

It is for this reason that when a drug is given 
by hypodermic injection only half as large a 
dose is required to produce a given effect as when 



46 TOBACCOISM 

given by the mouth. When injected under the 
skin the poison enters the circulation at once; 
when taken by the mouth, most of the drug passes 
through the liver and is distoxicated by it. Even 
when injected under the skin the poison is large- 
ly captured by the liver and destroyed, although 
more slowly and less completely. 

This wonderful distoxicating power of the liver 
was demonstrated by Roger, a pupil of the famous 
Bouchard, many years ago. 

The experiments of Roger, Charrin, and others, 
brought to light the curious fact that this dis- 
toxicating power of the liver is much greater after 
a meal than before, and led to the demonstration 
of the important part played by sugar or starch 
in the liver function. After a meal rich in fari- 
naceous foods, the liver cells are well filled with an 
animal starch known as glycogen, which is known to 
be essential for the distoxicating activity of the liver. 

This physiological fact explains the observation 
of Brooks that "there is a universal and well found- 
ed belief that the use of tobacco on a full stomach 
is less likely to produce symptoms than on an 
empty stomach." 

If the liver were able to destroy all the nicotine 
imbibed by smokers and to continue to do so 
for an indefinite period of time, the smoker might 
indulge his pipe with impunity and without stint. 
Indeed, some smokers seem to possess an almost 
unlimited liver capacity and to be able to distoxi- 




Normal Liver 




Tobacco-Destroyed Liver 



HOW TOBACCO DISORDERS DIGESTION 47 

cate almost unlimited quantities of nicotine. They 
are blessed with wonderful livers and are able not 
only to smoke almost constantly, to drink any 
amount of whiskey, to indulge their appetites with- 
out restraint, and yet maintain a marvelous degree 
of efficiency and manifest an astounding ability to 
resist the ravages of time. 

These men owe their unusual tolerance of to- 
bacco and other poisons to the fact that they pos- 
sess extraordinary livers which are able to do 
double or quadruple duty as poison destroyers. 
That they cannot be cited as proof that tobacco is 
harmless, is clearly enough shown by the fact that 
for every one possessed of this unusual tolerance to 
poisons because of his extraordinary endowment 
with capacity for poison destruction, there are many 
hundreds who demonstrate their lack of this un- 
usual natural protection by succumbing to the poi- 
son habit at an early age. 

It must be remembered, also, that the liver plays 
a highly important part in the process of diges- 
tion. It works over and refines, so to speak, the 
crude products of gastric and intestinal digestion. 
When compelled to devote its energies to the de- 
struction of nicotine, it cannot do the work of di- 
gestion properly. Crude and waste elements accu- 
mulate in the blood and tissues, and are eliminated 
in lessened quantity. This accounts In part for the 
lessened endurance of smokers. 



AS TOBACCOISM 

It is difficult to demonstrate the effects of tobacco 
upon the liver, because the human liver is exposed 
to so many other possible causes of injury. 

Stern (1907) thinks that tobacco may produce 
elementary glycosuria, and that a mild diabetes may 
be aggravated by the use of cigarettes. He even 
attributes certain cases of diabetes to nicotine pois- 
oning. 

Graziani showed that tobacco causes changes in 
the liver, particularly hemorrhages and areas of ne- 
crosis (death of tissue). 

Adler showed at the end of two months enlarge- 
ment of the liver and infiltrations indicating the be- 
ginning of sclerosis. These conditions were in- 
creased at the end of four months. The connective 
tissue was dense. Fatty degeneration was also 
present. 

Fatty and sclerotic changes in the liver have been 
noted by Gy and others in experiments upon ani- 
mals as the result of chronic nicotine poisoning. 



The Destructive Effects of Tobacco 
upon the Lungs 

The lining of the air tubes and cells of the lungs 
presents an extraordinarily extensive absorbing sur- 
face, about 1000 square feet of surface under which 
a volume of blood equal to all the blood in the body- 
courses every minute. Through the extremely deli- 
cate covering of this "respiratory field", gases of all 
sorts pass into the blood with the greatest facility. 
So rapid is this absorption that nicotine or any 
other poison introduced into the body in gaseous 
form enters the blood and saturates the tissues far 
more quickly than when introduced in liquid form 
into the stomach or by hypodermic injection. 

A single cigarette may contain a grain of nicotine, at 
least half of which enters the lungs and in part, at 
least, the blood. A cigar contains three or more 
times as much tobacco as the cigarette, but less nico- 
tine is absorbed because the smoke is not inhaled. 

Besides the nicotine there are all the other poison- 
ous products which are always present in smoke, 
creasote, pyridine, Prussic acid, furfurol. The com- 
placency with which smokers and sometimes non- 
smokers, ladies, perhaps, often sit for hours in a room 
the air of which is blue with tobacco smoke, is an evi- 
dence of the blunting effect of nicotine upon the 
normal sensibilities. Smoke from any other source 

49 



SO TOBACCOISM 

would not be tolerated. Yet smoke is smoke, and 
tobacco smoke does not differ essentially from other 
smoke except by the addition of nicotine, and other 
poisons much worse than those of ordinary smoke. 

The well-known irritating effects of smoke upon 
the respiratory membranes easily explain the injur- 
ious effects from tobacco smoke observed in the 
throats of smokers. 

Smoker's sore throat is a condition very familiar 
to throat specialists. The highly irritating and in- 
jurious effects of tobacco smoke in cases of chronic 
disease of the throat and lungs from other causes is 
also well known. So long as the patient continues 
to smoke his throat maladies are incurable; but 
from the moment he lays aside his pipe or cigar, re- 
covery begins. 

It is largely through the injury inflicted upon the 
naso-pharyngeal mucous membrane that smoking 
impairs the hearing and the sense of smell. 

Sir Morell Mackenzie, the famous London throat 
specialist, is quoted by a London author as saying 
that: 

"In considering the evils produced by smoking, it 
should be borne in mind that there are two bad 
qualities contained in the fumes of tobacco. The 
one is the poisonous nicotine, and the other is the 
high temperature of the burning tobacco. The 
cigarette, which is so much in vogue nowadays, is 
most certainly the worst form of indulgence, people 
being tempted to smoke all day long, and easily ac- 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON THE LUNGS 51 

customing themselves to inhale the fumes into their 
lungs, and thus saturating their blood with the poi- 
son/' 

And again, "Unfortunately it is not necessary to 
smoke to be a victim of tobacco. Many persons find 
their neighbors' pipes or cigars very trying, and, for 
a person with a delicate throat, exposure to an at- 
mosphere laden with the fumes of tobacco is even 
worse than smoking." 

Smoking Leads to Consumption. 

The unusual liability of cigar workers to tuber- 
culosis or lung consumption has long been noted. 
Attention has even been called to the danger of con- 
tracting the disease through the use of cigars by 
reason of the liability of infection through handling 
by persons suffering from the disease. 

In a paper read by the author by request before 
the National Association of Life Underwriters, at 
its meeting in New York City (1918), attention was 
called to certain statistical facts which seem to show 
that tobacco is a potent factor in causing pulmon- 
ary tuberculosis in men. It was shown that for every 
100 females who die of tuberculosis, there are 137 
male decedents, an excess of 37 per cent, although 
the excess of males in the population is only 2 per 
cent. 

It was further shown that, 

"Up to the period of 25 years, however, the female 
decedents are greatly in excess of the males, show- 



52 TOBACCOISM 

ing 122 female deaths to 100 males. Beginning 
with the twenty-fifth year, however, the figures are 
reversed, the disparity steadily increasing to a max- 
imum of 243 male decedents to 100 female decedents 
at the age period of 50-54 years. 

"The average for the entire period from 25-70 
years is 166 male deaths from lung tuberculosis to 
each 100 female deaths . 

"There certainly must be some definite reason for 
this very great preponderance of male decedents 
from an infectious disease. That the male constitu- 
tion is not more susceptible than the female is 
shown by the preponderance of female decedents 
during the first twenty-five years of life, the period 
of greatest susceptibility to infectious disease. In 
1915, between the years of 25-70, male deaths ex- 
ceeded female deaths to the enormous number of 
14,791, or one-fourth of the total number of dece- 
dents. During this period, one-fourth of the total 
number of deaths were due to lung tuberculosis. 

"Another point which should be mentioned in this 
connection is the fact that in certain parts of the 
country, Michigan, for example, while tuberculosis is 
on the whole decreasing, the decrease is wholly due 
to the lessened mortality of females from this dis- 
ease, since the mortality of males is actually in- 
creasing. 

"The fact that lung tuberculosis is increasing in 
males is very significant when associated with an- 
other fact; namely, the enormous increase in the 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON THE LUNGS 53 

consumption of tobacco, especially in the form of 
cigarettes, within the last few years. The increase 
of tuberculosis in man runs parallel with the in- 
crease of the consumption of tobacco. " 

The Fourth and Fifth Reports of the Phipps In- 
stitute of Philadelphia for the study and treatment 
of tuberculosis present strong evidence of the dam- 
aging influence of tobacco in the battle against this 
most dangerous enemy of human life. The "Fourth 
Report" (1907) says — 

"We have merely evidence as to the influence of 
tobacco on the development and mortality of tuber- 
culosis and not upon implantation. The preposter- 
ous claim that has been made that tobacco is a pre- 
ventive of tuberculosis implantation can not be 
maintained in the presence of the statistics of a large 
number of tobacco users who have developed tuber- 
culosis. More than two-thirds of the males who ap- 
plied for treatment used tobacco in one form or an- 
other. The statistics here given, if they have any mean- 
ing at all, would seem to indicate that the use of 
tobacco has a predisposing influence for the implan- 
tation of tuberculosis. In fact, the extensive use of 
tobacco by males may be one of the explanations 
why tuberculosis is at present so much more preva- 
lent among males than amoung females. 

"The damaging influence of tobacco in tuberculosis 
is probably exercised through the circulation. Tobacco 
undoubtedly depresses the heart and interferes to 
some extent with vigorous circulation. It is gener- 
ally conceded that anything that depresses the cir- 



54 TOBACCOISM 

culation interferes with nutrition and consequently 
predisposes to tuberculosis both in implantation and 
development." 

The Fifth Report (1908) gives us the following 
most significant facts which have never been in- 
validated or disputed: 

"We now have statistics for two years on the use 
of tobacco. During the fourth year 73.01% of the 
males used tobacco and 26.98% did not use it. For 
the current year (Feb. 1, 1907, to Feb. 1, 1908) 
78.95% used it and 21.04% did not use it. During 
the fourth year 61.80% smoked only, 8.38% chewed 
only, and 29.81% both smoked and chewed. Dur- 
ing the current year 63.77% smoked only, 7.18% 
chewed only, and 29.04% both smoked and chewed. 

"As with alcohol, so with tobacco, the mortality 
was much greater among those who used it than 
among those who did not use it. During the fourth 
year 18.58% of those who used tobacco died, as 
compared with 5.15% of those who did not use it; 
and during the current year 15.30% of those who 
used tobacco over those who did not use it is as 
great as the excessive mortality among those who 
used alcohol over those who did not use it. 

"Alcohol and tobacco give no protection against 
tuberculosis, as has been claimed by some people. 
The striking preponderance of mortality among pa- 
tients who used alcohol and tobacco as compared 
with those who did not use them, moreover, war- 
rants abstinence on the part of all who are suffer- 
ing from tuberculosis in active form." 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON THE LUNGS 55 

Dr. Wright of St. Mary's Hospital, London, found 
that nicotine greatly lowers the tuberculo-opsonic 
index, one of the most delicate means of measuring 
the resistance of the body to the tubercle bacillus. 
In one case reported by Wright, that of a cigarette 
smoker, the index was reduced to zero. The patient 
died three weeks later. 

Dr. Webb, a famous lung specialist, of Colorado 
Springs, observed in the examination of thousands 
of soldiers at the various camps during the war, 
that cigarette smoking is an active cause of chronic 
bronchitis. He reported the finding of "ronchi" 
in the lungs of nearly all smokers. Ronchi mean ir- 
ritation, and irritation means low resistance, an open 
door to tuberculosis. 

Tobacco asthma is well known (Gy). 



Destructive Changes in the Heart 

and Blood- Vessels Caused 

by Nicotine 

Adler and Hensel (1906) injected 15 deci-milli- 
grams of 1 to 200 solution of Merck's nicotine intra- 
venously (1/12 of a cigarette 1/40 of a grain). 
After 18 injections marked changes in the aorta 
made their appearance. These changes involved the 
entire aorta to the ileac bifurcation. They became 
most marked after 38 to 50 injections. 

Gebrowsky and Papadia (1907) observed similar 
changes in the aorta. 

Gy observed that the effects of nicotine are less 
marked than those of tobacco for the reason that 
nicotine does not represent all the poisons found 
either in tobacco or tobacco smoke. 

Boveri observed atheroma of the aorta and hy- 
pertrophy of the suprarenal capsules (degeneration 
of the kidney). 

Bylac obtained identical results and observed also 
aneurisms of the aorta and calcareous plaques (ar- 
teriosclerosis) in a rabbit weighing two kilograms, 
which was given in the course of 38 days, 35 c. c. 
of a ten per cent infusion of tobacco by intravenous 
injection. 

Lesieur (1907) observed lesions of the aorta as 
the result of subcutaneous injections of infusions of 

56 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 57 

French and English tobaccos. The atheroma (cal- 
cereous degeneration) was most often found at the 
arch of the aorta. 

The appearance of these lesions is always the 
same, whether produced by lead, tobacco, adrenalin, 
oxalic acid or digitalis. 

The atheroma is, according to Josue, a process of 
defense. There is first a simple thickening of the 
elastic and muscular tissues of the artery. Later 
degeneration occurs because of disturbance of the 
circulation. 

Claude Bernard made a microscopic study of the 
effects of nicotine upon the blood-vessels of a frog's 
foot. He found that the vessels contracted so 
strongly that they were completely emptied of 
blood. 

Lauder Brunton and others have shown that nico- 
tine is a powerful vasoconstrictor. 

The violent chill sometimes observed in guinea- 
pigs after injections with infusion of tobacco, were 
thought by Claude Bernard to be the same sort of 
effect as that produced by the ligature of an artery 
in preventing blood from entering a muscle in caus- 
ing trembling of the muscle. 

Fleig and de Visme have shown that tobacco, no 
matter in what way introduced, always causes a 
formidable elevation of blood pressure. This is due 
to the direct action of nicotine upon the muscular 
walls of the vessels. Later, this vasoconstriction is 
followed by a paralytic vasodilatation. 



58 TOBACCOISM 

Gy observed changes in the arteries in two cases 
as the result of the use of Caporal tobacco. 

Boveri produced atheroma in 10 rabbits out of 16. 

Degeneration of the Large Arteries 

Baylac obtained the same results in 5 rabbits out 
of 8; Gebrowsky in 7 rabbits out of 9. 

Hypertrophy of the heart is a natural result of 
the raised blood-pressure. 

Examination of the heart tissue showed, in dogs 
(Favarger), degeneration of the heart muscle. 

Gebrowsky found lesions of the ganglia of the 
heart. 

Brooks made postmortem examinations of fifty- 
four tobacco users and found damaged heart mus- 
cles in nearly every case. Fatty and fibroid degene- 
ration and brown atrophy were most common. 

The Smoker's Heart. 

There are three characteristic symptoms of to- 
bacco heart, one or all of which may be present; viz., 
pain, shortness of breath, rapid and often irregular 
heart action. 

The heart is a muscle. The blood-vessels are 
muscular tubes connected with the heart. The heart 
and blood-vessels may be properly regarded as one 
organ, having for its function the distribution of the 
blood to the tissues and the renewal of tissue wastes. 

The task performed by the heart is much greater 
than is generally realized. It expends one-tenth of 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 59 

the whole bodily output of energy in lifting the 
120 foot tons which constitute the average day's 
work of the heart. 

The heart is a pump, the arteries the distributing 
pipes, the veins, the return pipes. When the arter- 
ies are contracted or obstructed, the work of the 
heart is increased and the blood-pressure is raised. 

The heart is controlled by nerves which give to 
it a rhythmic movement and regulate its action to 
suit the needs of the tissues. 

The blood-vessels are also controlled by nerves 
which regulate their size and their activity. A con- 
stant adjustment of the work of the heart is neces- 
sary to meet the changing conditions of the blood 
vessels. Upon the constant and regular action of 
this finely adjusted mechanism, all the processes of 
life depend. 

Old age is essentially due to the wearing out of 
the heart and blood-vessels. An eminent French 
physiologist very truly said, "A man is as old as 
his arteries." 

The effect of tobacco upon the heart has been 
most carefully studied by many physiologists. All 
authorities agree that tobacco is a heart poison. A 
very small dose increases the work of the heart by 
contracting the arteries and raising the blood pres- 
sure. This effect is produced not only in beginners 
but in old smokers. It is the result of the influence 
of tobacco upon the nerves which control the heart 
and blood-vessels. 



60 TOBACCOISM 

A single cigarette or cigar causes a rise of ten to 
fifteen points in the blood-pressure (Brooks, Jane- 
way). This means an increase in the work of the 
heart amounting to more than ten per cent. That 
is, the heart has to lift 132-foot tons instead of 120- 
foot tons, — twelve tons of energy thrown away. 
This loss (estimated for the whole time) amounts 
to one per cent of the whole energy of the body. 
Of course a single cigar will not produce a perman- 
ent effect, but after some years the habitual smok- 
er's blood-pressure is permanently raised and not 
ten to twenty points only, but fifty, seventy-five, 
and even a hundred points. The work of the heart 
is doubled or more than doubled. 

The electrocardiograph is an instrument of ex- 
treme delicacy by which morbid conditions of the 
heart may be detected and studied through a graphic 
record of the electrical currents generated during 
the action of the heart. The accompanying cuts 
show the normal sphygmograph tracing and that of a 
smoker suffering from myocarditis due to tobacco. 

Overwork of any bodily organ always leads to 
premature senility and failure. The overworked 
heart early becomes the seat of degenerative pro- 
cesses. 

Claude Bernard, the great French physiologist, 
was first to notice the contraction of the blood- 
vessels caused by nicotine. Bruce, Miller, Hooker, 
Hirschfelder, all noted the same. The effects are 
the same on beginners and old smokers (Brooks). 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 6i 

M. Julin {Zeit. f. Exp. Path u. Therapy Berlin, 
1913) called attention to the fact that smoking al- 
ways raises the diastolic pressure. This point is 
highly important. The diastolic pressure represents 
the work the heart has to do to open its valves and 
before it can send any blood into the arteries. The 
higher the diastolic pulse the more energy the 
heart must waste. The rise is due to contraction 
of the small arteries caused by the nicotine circulat- 
ing in the blood. 

Said the late Dr. Janeway, an authority on blood- 
pressure : 

"Tobacco, or its alkaloid nicotine, has a powerful 
action on the circulation. Nicotine, in less than 
overwhelming dose, produces an immense augmenta- 
tion of blood-pressure in animals, due to stimula- 
tion of both central and peripheral vaso-motor mech- 
anisms (Cushney). Cook and Briggs have called 
attention to the temporary elevation of arterial ten- 
sion during smoking. They found it most marked 
when a strong cigar or old pipe is used, and con- 
tinuing an hour or more after the smoke is ended. 

"Dr. John, in the clinic of Volhard at Dortmund, 
made a study of the influence of tobacco smoking 
on the circulation. His blood-pressure measure- 
ments indicate that the smoking of two 'medium* 
cigars evokes characteristic alterations in arterial 
pressure in typical cases. Even during the act of 
smoking there may be evidence of rise in diastolic 
pressure, and the effect may persist as long as two 



62 TOBACCOISM 

hours. Eight or ten Russian cigarettes give a result 
comparable with two 'medium' cigars. 

"These experiments confirm the impression that 
nicotine can produce vascular alterations in the 
sense of sclerotic changes. We may argue as we 
will that habitual smokers have consumed extraor- 
dinary quantities of tobacco over long periods with- 
out signs of vascular change, but we are in duty 
bound to take cognizance of careful blood-pressure 
measurements. 'Indifference to scientific evidence 
is an intolerable attitude/ " (Jour. A. M. A., 1914). 

Calling attention to the fact that chewing, more 
than smoking, through absorption and hemolysis, 
causes an acidosis of the blood which increases 
blood pressure, Dr. Daniel Lichty says : 

"The high blood-pressure will account for some 
of the flights of genius and descents into iniquity 
of some great minds otherwise blameless. Tobacco 
toxemia is more to blame than alcohol. A man 
usually knows when he is drunk, but rarely knows 
when he is tobacco-inebriated. ,, 

Boveri gave nicotine to rabbits for eighty-four 
days and found hardening of the blood-vessels. 

Cases have been observed in man in which there 
seems to have been no evident cause for an exten- 
sive arteriosclerosis other than excessive smoking." 
(Jour. A. M. A., 1909). 

Tobacco Angina Pectoris. 

The pernicious effect of nicotine upon the heart 
is shown by the experiment of Rouget, who noted 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 63 

that when the heart of an animal which has been 
killed with chloroform is touched with a con- 
centrated solution of nicotine, the heart contracts 
very strongly, showing the remarkable irritating influ- 
ence of nicotine upon the heart. 

Angina pectoris, a highly painful disease of the 
heart, is due to constriction of the vessels of the 
heart itself. 

Tobacco causes temporary constriction of the 
vessels with the pain and other agonizing symp- 
toms characteristic of angina pectoris. 

A similar contraction of the arteries of the arms 
and legs as well as of the pancreas has been noted, 
and an eminent Vienna physician has recently 
pointed out that contraction of the vessels of the 
intestines and other abdominal organs, with ex- 
treme pain, may be due to the same cause. 

These anginal pains sometimes appear with the 
first cigar (Brooks), but usually develop later. 

The heart nerves do not become accustomed to 
the drug by use, but on the contrary, become sen- 
sitized so that the poisonous effects are produced 
by smaller doses than at first. Brooks relates a case 
in which a heavy smoker had become so sensitized 
that he could not enter a room containing tobacco 
smoke without being seized with an anginal attack. 

The anginal attacks produced by tobacco have 
proved fatal (Huchard). 

Irregularity of the pulse is one of the character- 



64 TOBACCOISM 

istics of "smoker's heart." This is believed to be 
due to contraction of the arteries of the heart. 

Authors have recognized for a long time the ex- 
istence in smokers of such symptoms as neuralgia 
and angina pectoris. 

Tobacco angina of the chest has been described 
by Huchard and many other authors. Numerous 
cases have been reported. 

Huchard cites a case of a man of 42 years, an 
officer, previously in excellent health. No alcoholic 
excess. No disease. He had smoked since he was 
18 years old and for 20 years had smoked from 30 
to 60 cigarettes a day of Caporal tobacco. He died 
suddenly after breakfast one morning. The post- 
mortem showed death to have been due to an attack 
of angina of the chest induced by smoking. 

Huchard reports another case of a physician of 
28 years who smoked continuously, lighting one 
cigar from the preceding one. He began suffering 
from attacks of angina, which came on every night 
during sleep, producing a sensation of sudden suf- 
focation with restriction of the chest, and pain run- 
ning into the left arm. He was frightened at these 
attacks and stopped smoking. Within a month the 
attacks disappeared and did not return. 

According to Huchard, these attacks are due to 
spasm or sclerosis of the arteries of the heart. 

Heart symptoms due to tobacco are often encoun- 
tered in smokers. The symptoms are especially 
produced by fatigue and are most likely to show 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 65 

themselves in old smokers; they may appear 
whether tobacco has been used in excess or not. 
The most prominent symptoms are vertigo, mal- 
aise, sleeplessness, slow pulse, sometimes inter- 
mittent pulse. These symptoms are often very dis- 
tinct, sometimes continuing for a year or two after 
the use of tobacco is suspended. 

Chapman, of England, long ago (1892) described 
as "tobacco heart" a hypertrophy and dilation of the 
heart due to tobacco. The action of tobacco upon 
the blood-vessels is not less marked than its effect 
upon the heart. 

Huchard and Robin held that the changes in the 
blood-vessels are the result of the increased blood- 
pressure. 

Smoking not only encourages changes in the 
blood-vessels but aggravates the effects of various 
other causes which may be in operation. 

Eid (1900) observed, during a visit to Corsica, 
numerous cases of aortic lesions in persons who had 
been great smokers. In two of them suppression 
of tobacco brought complete disappearance of the 
heart symptoms. 

Disorders of the blood-vessels due to tobacco 
poisoning are much more frequent than heart 
troubles. In these cases the affected person may 
feel in his legs after a few steps various pains, such 
as sensations of weight, of ants crawling, cramps, 
and heaviness. Sometimes the feet and legs become 
white, at other times the color of wine. There is no 



66 TOBACCOISM 

change in the reflexes or in sensibility. The pulse 
is small and frequently cannot be felt at the tibial 
arteries. The patient is suddenly obliged to stop 
when walking. After a little while the pain ceases 
and he can go on. Soon all the symptoms reappear. 
These symptoms, which often coincide with other 
signs of arteriosclerosis, may be confined to one 
limb, usually the left leg. At length dry gangrene 
may occur in a toe or the entire foot. Sometimes 
the symptoms are less pronounced. A single artery 
may be affected without the nutrition of the whole 
limb being disturbed. 

The cause of these symptoms is easily under- 
stood. Tobacco produces spasm of the arteries, 
which diminishes the blood supply. This hindrance 
is hardly perceptible when the limbs are in repose. 
When an increased supply of blood is required by 
exercise, the deficiency of blood appears, with inter- 
mittent claudication. One step farther and the more 
advanced symptoms appear. 

Dr. Willy Meyer has recently recorded numerous 
observations which seem to show very conclusively 
that the use of tobacco is the chief cause of this condi- 
tion commonly known as "intermittent claudication." 

The fact that this disease, also known as throm- 
boangiitis obliterans, is practically unknown in 
women, is held by Dr. Meyer to be strongly con- 
firmatory of his view that smoking is the principal 
cause of the disease. He regards the pyridine of 
tobacco smoke as second only to nicotine in its 
baneful effects. 




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CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS & 

Of all the causes of this form of angiosclerosis, to- 
bacco is the most frequent. In 45 cases observed, 
Erb found only 7 who would not confess to having 
smoked. Thirteen smoked moderately, 10 smoked 
much, and 15 smoked excessively. 

The Old Smoker's Heart. 

That the effects of tobacco upon the heart are 
not lessened by use, is well shown by the observa- 
tions of J. W. Payne and G. A. Dowling (Fisher 
and Berry), who found that smokers have con- 
stantly a higher pulse rate than non-smokers, due 
to weakening of the heart muscles. 

Another evidence of heart weakness in smokers 
was the fact that after exercise the pulse rate re- 
turned much more slowly to the pre-exercise rate. 
For example, in smokers the pulse rate did not re- 
turn to normal at the end of fifteen minutes after 
exercise, whereas in non-smokers the average time 
was only five minutes. 

"That soldiers in this war smoke to excess is, I 
think, unquestionable; and in the treatment of 'ir- 
ritable heart' the limitation of pipe and cigarette 
smoking should, I submit, constitute a leading item." 
Kenneth Macleod, Brit. Med. Journal 

Dr. Osier (Lancet, 1910) calls attention to the 
increase of angina pectoris, the result of the rapid 
growth of the tobacco habit in women in recent 
years. 



68 TOBACCOISM 

Dr. Osier states that death may occur from to- 
bacco angina pectoris and cites the cases of three 
of his friends, apparently strong, healthy men, in- 
cessant smokers, all of whom died suddenly from 
the effects of tobacco on the nerves of the heart. 

Huchard and others believe that tobacco angina 
pectoris may be due to arteriosclerosis of the ar- 
teries of the heart produced by the continued action 
of nicotine. 

Says J. Rochard: "I have met cases of angina 
pectoris chiefly among persons living in an atmos- 
phere of tobacco smoke." 

Soldier's Heart. 

Among the irregularities mentioned as due to to- 
bacco are extrasystole (extra beat), palpitation, and 
"heart block," a condition in which the auricles and 
ventricles of the heart beat at a different rate {Jour. 
A. M. A.) These irregularities are the ordinary 
symptoms of "soldier's heart," which not a few 
physicians believe to be only another name for 
"tobacco heart." 

The condition known as soldier's heart has been 
long recognized. The British government appointed 
in 1864 a committee to investigate heart conditions 
in the army. They recommended the use of a cer- 
tain brace. The brace was supplied but made no 
change. In 1876 an army surgeon suggested that 
the setting-up drill might be the cause. Investiga- 
tion showed this also to be an error because the 




PORTAL VEIN '/• 



DIAGRAM OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 69 

same condition was met in men who had had no 
drill. (British Medical Journal, 1916). 

A Captain in the British Army suggests in the 
British Med. Jour. (Mar., 1916) that: 

"This question of cigarette smoking will probably 
be seriously considered one of these days because 
of the number of men who will be invalided with 
tobacco hearts, called possibly by other names, all 
of whom will claim pensions as having been injured 
by war service." 

Every smoker, soldier or civilian, suffers from 
tobacco heart. The young smoker has acute to- 
bacco heart so long as he is under the influence of 
the drug. The effect disappears within a day or 
two when smoking is suspended. The best trained 
sprinter can not run well after smoking a cigar or 
cigarette because of the depressing effect upon his 
heart. The old smoker has chronic tobacco heart. 
His heart is weak from chronic nicotine poisoning 
when he smokes and when he does not smoke. It 
is permanently damaged. He is never a good run- 
ner because of his enfeebled heart. He has a poor 
wind. 

Nicolai of Berlin has made a careful study of the 
effects of tobacco upon the heart and vessels and 
states (Zeitscter. f. Exp. Path, und Therap. 1910) 
that "In chronic tobacco poisoning we find besides 
the affections of the digestive tract, air passages, 
nervous system and eye, distinct changes in the 
heart and blood vessels. Palpitation, irregular and 



70 TOBACCOISM 

increased pulse rate in inveterate smokers were 
known long ago. Dornblosth mentioned in 1877 
that cigar makers suffer from palpitation of the 
heart. Favarger distinguishes three stages of 
poisoning: 1. Palpitation or in its stead painful sen- 
sations in praecordium or epigastrium. 2. Slight 
symptoms of insufficiency, corresponding to the 
'weakened heart/ 3. Asthmatic attacks. 

"Erb noted a connection between arteriosclerosis 
and tobacco, and Bamberger observed an attack of 
angina pectoris, with other manifestations of arte- 
riosclerosis, in a 'wet' smoker of forty." 

"No part of the body can escape a poison that is 
circulating in the blood day and night. The nervous 
system suffers and the muscles become tremulous. 
But the heart is the chief sufferer in both the be- 
ginner and the confirmed smoker." (Tidswell.) 

The Medical Record (1917) calls attention to an 
important paper by Tullidge in "The Military Sur- 
geon" in which the opinion is expressed that "to- 
bacco smoking, especially cigarette smoking, is 
largely responsible for the various cardio-vascular 
disturbances" from which soldiers suffer. 

Parkinson of London, a noted heart specialist, 
found the average pulse rate nine beats higher 
during smoking than before, and noted that smok- 
ing is an important factor in the breathlessness 
and anginal pain connected with "soldier's heart." 

Smoking has become so nearly universal among 
soldiers, we need not be surprised at the report of 



CHANGES IN HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS 71 

Rehfisch who made a study of hundreds of cases 
and found weakening of the heart muscle in 70 
per cent of all the cases. 

This author found disease of the blood-vessels, arte- 
riosclerosis of the arteries of the heart, in 43 per cent 
of all the cases examined, even in subjects between 
20 and 30 years of age. 

Said the late Lauder Brunton, a very eminent 
English physician, "Tobacco seems to bring on an 
affection of the heart characterized by extraordinary 
irregularity. A curious point about it is that very little 
tobacco will keep up this irritability." 

Since the government in every way encouraged 
the use of tobacco by soldiers, even going so far 
as to add it to the rations, it is quite fair to inquire 
whether the soldier is not as much entitled to con- 
sideration for tobacco injuries as for bullet wounds 
or any other bodily damage incident to the military 
service. 
The Destructive Effects of Tobacco on the Blood. 

Vas found the red cells reduced from 5,800,000 
to 2,400,000 (very pronounced anemia). The white 
cells were doubled in proportion. 

Petit, Clark, and others obtained similar results. 

The white blood cells defend the body against the 
attacks of germs. They repair injuries and perform 
other important functions. In the words of Holy 
Writ, "The blood is the life." Tobacco disintegrates 
the white blood cells as well as lessens their power to 
combat germs. It is thus a poison which invades the 
very citadel of the body. 



Tobacco and Bright's Disease 

The duty of the kidneys is to remove from the 
body certain poisonous wastes which are in part 
the result of the activity of the body cells and in 
part are derived from outside sources. The normal 
fluids of the body are slightly alkaline. Anything 
that lessens the normal alkalinity of the blood and 
tissue fluids, damages the body cells. To prevent 
a dangerous accumulation of these acid poisons, 
the kidneys must remove them as fast as they 
are generated by body work or as they are absorbed 
from the stomach or intestines or taken in through 
the lungs. To do this important work each kid- 
ney is provided with about 2,000,000 delicate cells, 
which possess the power of recognizing and re- 
moving poisons from the blood. Each of these 
cells secretes in the course of a lifetime of sixty 
years, one tablespoonful of urine. 

This highly delicate poison eliminating machine is 
easily damaged. The concentration of poisons in 
its cells and delicate drainage canals, exposes them 
to special injury. When overworked the cells are 
injured and are easily destroyed. Sudden damage 
of the kidney is acute Bright's disease; a gradual 
destructive process is chronic Bright's disease. 

Fortunately a person may live and apparently 
enjoy good health even when one kidney has been 
destroyed by disease. Even two-thirds of one kid- 



TOBACCO AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE 73 

ney may do the ordinary scavenger work of the 
body, but a person with such a reduced kidney ca- 
pacity has no margin of safety with which to meet 
emergencies. Any unusual demand for extra kid- 
ney work will exceed his kidney capacity and the 
result will be disaster, dropsy, renal congestion, 
suppression of urine, even uremic convulsions and 
death. Many persons are living close to the edge 
of such a catastrophe, but with no conciousness 
of their danger. Albumen and casts are evidences 
that the kidneys are being destroyed, but their 
appearance does not mark the beginning of Bright's 
disease; it indicates that the destructive process 
has been long at work and that a complete break- 
down is impending. 

Naturally, as Gy observes, the kidneys suffer 
less than does the liver. This is doubtless due to 
the fact that nicotine reaches the liver first and 
that the liver, in part, at least, distoxicates the 
nicotine and other tobacco poisons, thus lessening 
their power to damage other organs. 

Gebrowsky observed in animals subjected to to- 
bacco smoke, nephritis with hyaline casts. 

Gy observed albuminurea in four cases, also 
changes in the convoluted tubules and hyaline casts. 

The kidneys suffer less than the liver for the 
reason that they are protected by the antitoxic ac- 
tion of the liver. This is especially true in the 
case of nicotine, for which the liver has a special 
affinity. 



74 TOBACCOISM 

The damaging effect of smoking upon the kid- 
neys is indirect through its influence upon blood 
pressure, as well as direct. 

'Fleig and de Visme showed that tobacco produces 
a very pronounced contraction of the vessels of the 
kidney, an effect which directly lessens the efficiency 
of the organs by diminishing the blood supply. 

Nicotine is a highly irritant poison; and tobacco 
smoke contains in addition to nicotine several other 
highly poisonous and irritant acid smoke products 
which impose a great burden upon the kidneys 
and slowly destroy them. The smoker is quite 
unconscious of the mischief that is being done un- 
til the damage has become so extensive that the 
kidney fails in its function, and then irreparable 
injury has been done. 

However, a critical examination will show in any 
old smoker, evidence of the injury which tobacco 
is doing to his kidneys. The examination of large 
bodies of men made by the Life Extension Institute, 
has revealed the fact that a large proportion of men 
in active business life show evidence of disease of 
the kidneys which in most cases may be attributed, 
in part, at least, to the tobacco habit. 

When Alexander III. of Russia, the father of the 
present Czar, was found to be suffering from 
Bright's disease, many persons became anxious on 
their own account. A French medical journal de- 
scribed what happened in Paris at the time. A 
large number of the business men of Paris went to 



TOBACCO AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE 75 

their physicians and asked for an examination. 
This resulted in the revelation that 10 per cent 
of the men examined, persons who were apparently in 
good health, already had Bright's disease. 

Dr. Munro, of Scotland, an eminent physician, 
some years ago, made careful tests of the urine of 
100 smokers, taking them just as they came, and 
he found that 10 per cent of them had albumen in 
the urine. These smokers were already victims of 
Bright's disease without knowing it. 

When a man smokes, the poisons taken in must 
be eliminated somehow. Part of the poison passes 
out through the lungs, and the odor can be de- 
tected in the breath. Some is eliminated by the 
skin, the perspiration sometimes staining garments 
yellow. But by far the greater part is excreted by 
the kidneys, which first become congested, and then 
degenerated and diseased, the condition commonly 
known as Bright's disease. 

That the notable increase in the mortality from 
Bright's disease in recent years is in large part 
due to the use of tobacco is at least suggested by 
the fact that for every 100 females who die of 
Bright's disease, 132 males die. The influence of 
tobacco seems to be very clear when we analyze the 
statistical facts. 

At the age period of 10-14 years, the number of 
female decedents rises to 148 per 100 males, and 
female deaths exceed male deaths in the succeeding 
age periods to the period of 35-39, when the two 



76 TOBACCOISM 

classes of deaths become equal. After this period, an 
excess of male deaths develops rapidly, reaching 140 
males for 100 females at 50 years, and continuing at 
a high figure for the following fifteen years. Evi- 
dently, the danger to the kidneys associated with 
child-bearing is so great as to overbalance during the 
age limits which cover the child-bearing period of 
women the pernicious influence of these etiological 
factors which render male adults at the other periods 
more subject to Bright's disease than females. 

That this notable excess of mortality in males from 
renal disease is chiefly attributable to the use of to- 
bacco and alcohol may be fairly inferred from the 
facts which have been presented in relation to the 
excess of male deaths due to disease of the arteries. 
This view is further confirmed by the fact that while 
there was, between 1910 and 1915, an increase in the 
mortality of females from Bright's disease amounting 
to 7.4 decedents per 100,000 of the population, the 
male decedents increased 11.5. That is, for every 
increase of 100 female decedents from Bright's dis- 
ease, there was an increase of 165 male decedents. 

The above figures speak eloquently in condemna- 
tion of the cigar and the cigarette. If the use of 
tobacco by men is not the true explanation of 
their greater mortality from disease of the kidneys, 
it must be admitted that no other explanation has 
been offered. 



Effects of Tobacco upon the Brain 
and Nerves 

A man may become intoxicated or drunken from 
the use of tobacco as well as alcohol. Professor 
George B. Woods in his great work on "Therapeu- 
tics and Pharmacology" refers to several cases of de- 
lirium tremens produced by tobacco. Any poison 
may cause intoxication. 

Tobacco, like alcohol and opium, acts especially 
upon the nervous system (Campbell). Dr. Frankl- 
Hochwart, after a careful study of several thou- 
sand cases, states that "the localization of the toxic 
action of nicotine is much like that of syphilis," that 
is, upon the nerves and blood-vessels. 

Recent studies of the brain and nerves by the 
refined methods of the modern laboratory, show 
that every irritant poison produces immediate 
damage of the fine structures of the brain, lessening 
the acuteness of thought and the quickness and ac- 
curacy of nerve activity. The use of tobacco in 
the smallest quantities is more or less damaging 
to the brain and nerves, lessening nerve sensi- 
bility and mental acumen. The free or prolonged 
use of tobacco is recognized as one of the most 
common causes of insanity. Neurasthenia, and a 
great number of chronic nervous disorders may be 
directly traced to the use of tobacco in a very 
large number of cases. 

77 



78 TOBACCOISM 

"Tobacco has a powerful influence on the nerv- 
ous system, and I have known a case of an ab- 
stainer, with a male inebriate heredity, who 
trembled like a man with delirium tremens every 
morning until he had a pipe to steady him." {Dr. 
Norman Kerr, "Inebriety" p. 129.) 

Unsteadiness of the nerves or "trembling" is one 
of the most common effects of smoking. It is 
most marked in the morning. After a while it 
becomes permanent. It usually disappears when 
the smoking is discontinued. It is very similar 
to the trembling due to the use of coffee. It is 
especially noticed in writing or other fine work, 
and is often apparent in the handwriting. The 
lower extremities are affected in a similar man- 
ner. It is not unusual to observe in smokers the 
next day after they have smoked more than usual, 
a certain hesitation in walking — a lack of precision 
in placing the feet upon the ground. Certain 
authors speak of tobacco ataxia. 

Vertigo a Very Common Symptom in Smokers 

Dr. Bremer, of St. Louis, late physician to St. 
Vincent's Institute for the Insane, in a paper en- 
titled "Tobacco Insanity and Nervousness" asserts 
that "the boy who smokes at 7, will drink whisky 
at 14, take morphine at 20 or 25, and wind up 
with cocaine and the rest of the narcotics at 30 
and later on." 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 79 

Dr. Bremer very aptly calls attention to the 
fact that a drug capable of producing the extreme- 
ly poisonous effects observed in a person not ac- 
customed to its use and of setting up such vital 
disturbances as give rise to blindness, disease of 
the heart, etc., must be capable of producing 
sooner or later "one or the other forms of in- 
sanity." The nerves of the eye are simply ex- 
tensions of the brain itself. If tobacco can pro- 
duce such changes in these as to produce blindness, 
why may it not effect other portions of the brain 
likewise? The more recent authorities upon the 
effect of tobacco, alcohol, and other irritating poi- 
sons upon the brain, have shown changes which 
have been formerly overlooked. It is now known 
that tobacco, as well as alcohol, has the effect to 
destroy the delicate branches of the nerve cells 
and the minute buds with which they come in 
contact with other cells, thus communicating 
thought, sensation and impulses. 

Tobacco Epilepsy. 

Dr. Bremer has met a number of cases of 
epilepsy in which the disease was apparently pro- 
duced by the use of cigarettes, and the influence 
of tobacco upon the disease was clearly manifested 
by the fact that the free use of tobacco was gen- 
erally immediately followed by an unusually severe 
attack of epilepsy. 

Tedeschi observed a case of epilepsy in a man 
aged 32 and healthy until three years before, 



80 TOBACCOISM 

when he had a seizure resembling an epileptic 
seizure, and, after a few days' interval, a few more. 
He was in the habit of smoking sixty or seventy 
cigarettes a day, but did not drink and had no his- 
tory of venereal disease. On suspension of smok- 
ing he had no further attacks for two or three 
years. Believing himself cured, he began to 
smoke again, when, suddenly, on the street, he 
had a complete and severe epileptic seizure, with 
loss of consciousness and biting the tongue. 

In a second case, the man of 29 did not smoke, 
but chewed tobacco almost constantly. He de- 
veloped typical epileptic seizures, but had no more 
after giving up the use of tobacco. 

Gy showed in the rabbit, especially, that in- 
travenous injections of tobacco infusions or smoke 
water produced convulsions and experimental 
epilepsy, followed by partial paralysis of the hind 
legs. He also showed that marked changes took 
place in the nerve cells, particularly in the chro- 
matic substance. 

"Peri reported in 1906 that workers on tobacco 
die mostly from lesions in the circulatory system, 
especially from changes in the cerebral arteries. 
All these data sustain the assumption that to- 
bacco is able to induce actual epilepsy in certain 
rare cases, even in the absence of a special pre- 
disposition." (Journal A. M. A., May 5, 1917.) 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 81 

Tobacco Neurasthenics. 

Tobacco neurasthenia is most frequently en- 
countered in young men, especially clerks and 
others employed in offices and those following 
other vocations of a sedentary sort. The well- 
known effect of tobacco upon the sympathetic sys- 
tem, renders it especially active in the development 
of the neurasthenic state. 

In experiments on animals the physiologist 
habitually makes use of nicotine as a means of 
paralyzing the .sympathetic nerve. 

Apropos of this phase of tobaccoism, the British 
Medical Journal (December, 1918), has this to say: 

"Since the commencement of the war, tobacco 
has obtained far too great a hold upon the com- 
munity generally, but I doubt whether the medical 
profession has fully appreciated the craving which 
neurasthenics have for tobacco, and especially in 
the form of cigarettes. A most prejudicial vicious 
circle becomes established, and, as one patient so 
truly confided to me, the inhalation of cigarettes 
is one of the causes of this disability. Neurotic 
patients who are candid with themselves and their 
medical advisers recognize this fact; but their loss 
of self-control prevents their breaking the habit. 
It is for the medical profession to assist them. 
But much more good might be achieved in the 
line of prevention by some authoritative pro- 
nouncement which would save a large number of 
susceptible subjects from drifting unawares into 
nervous depravity/' 



82 TOBACCOISM 

Tobacco not only produces neurasthenia, but is 
a dangerous refuge for the neurotic in which he 
finds after temporary relief, a great aggravation 
of his miseries and a drug enslavement from which 
he seldom escapes if he does not fall into greater 
depths of drug addiction which it seeks out with 
unvarying certainty. 

The toxic effect of tobacco upon the sympa- 
thetic nervous system is shown by the nausea, 
vertigo, and great depression generally produced 
by the first pipe or cigar in the "would-be" de- 
votee of the drug. Trembling of the hands, in- 
termittent beating of the heart, shortness of breath 
and loss of endurance are effects which regularly 
follow the habitual use of tobacco. No intel- 
ligent trainer will permit a man preparing for an 
athletic event to make use of tobacco in any form. 
A large proportion of young men who are refused 
admission to the army at the recruiting bureaus 
are rejected because of neurasthenic symptoms due 
to the use of tobacco. The man whose nerves are 
unsteady and who cannot work without his pipe 
or cigar has already become a tobacco neurasthenic. 

There are tobacco users who notice so little 
effect from the drug that they can dispense with 
the usual pipe or cigar without inconvenience. 
Such persons may not become neurasthenic, but 
will sooner or later develop toxic symptoms, such 
as high blood-pressure, albuminuria, or some 
chronic affection of the heart, lungs, or nerves* 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 83 

Dr. L. P. Clarke (Medical Record), mentions 
among symptoms of tobacco poisoning which are 
commonly overlooked, the following indications of 
nerve injury: 

Leg weariness, pains in the calves of the legs, 
and even joint pains and irregular or localized 
nerve pains. 

Profuse perspiration on least exertion, especially 
of the palms of the hands, with the tendency of the 
hands and feet to be cold. 

Tobacco Headache. 

Von Frankl-Hockwart examined 800 smokers 
and found one in five suffering from headache. 
Vertigo, sleeplessness, inability to work without 
smoking, ill-humor, depression, worry, impulsive 
ideas and weak memory were other common 
symptoms. 

Loss of Word Memory. 

Dr. Goodhart, an eminent nuerologist, "reports a 
case of amnesia in a professor of law in a lead- 
ing university. Family history negative, alcohol 
and specific infection excluded. No evidence of 
arterial degenerative change. But the patient had 
always been a constant excessive smoker of spe- 
cially selected, strong tobacco for which he had 
such a predilection that he sent to Porto Rico for 
it. At the time of the occurrence of the am- 
nesia (loss of word memory), he was much de- 
bilitated as a result of intense mental applica- 



84 TOBACCOISM 

tion, and an emotional upheaval due to affairs of 
a personal character, and had been seeking solace 
in tobacco. Withdrawal of all tobacco and gen- 
eral rest and nutritional care was the sole treat- 
ment. For several years after, periodic excesses in 
tobacco indulgence were followed by slight amnesic 
attacks, responding at once to abstinence." {Journal 
A. M. A., 1913.) U 

Von Frankl-Hochwart mentions among other 
nervous symptoms due to tobacco, difficulties in 
speaking and writing, defects of word memory, 
aphasia, neuralgia, sciatica and various forms of 
genital weakness. 

Says Dr. Syms Woodhead, of Cambridge Uni- 
versity, England (Popular Science Monthly, 1910) : 

"Cigarette smoking in the case of boys, partly 
paralyzes the nerve cells at the base of the brain 
and this interferes with the breathing and heart 
action. The end organs of the motor nerves lose 
their excitability, next the trunks of the nerves 
and then the spinal cord. In those accustomed 
to smoking, it has a soothing effect upon the 
nervous system, but often acts as a nervous stimulant 
to mental work, as in reading. In those cases the 
effect is not due to nicotine itself, but to the stimulus 
of the smoke on the sensory nerves of the mouth, 
which reflexly stimulate the vaso-motor system and 
dilate the vessels of the brain. There appears to be 
less irritation of the brain structure and motor nerves 
than of the sensory nerves, but the power of 
fine co-ordination is decidedly lost." 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 85 

A factory manager whose business involves many 
details, recently stated to the writer than on one occa- 
sion when he had renounced smoking for six weeks, 
he found after two or three days that his memory be- 
came so retentive, it was unnecessary for him to make 
memoranda, on which he had formerly been wholly 
dependent. After being made acquainted with some 
of the facts presented in this work, the gentleman re- 
solved to discard tobacco permanently. 

An extended research for the purpose of ob- 
taining exact data upon the psychologic effect of 
tobacco, especially its effect upon the mental ac- 
tivities and development of students, has been un- 
dertaken by the the Committee of Fifty for the 
Study of the Tobacco Problem. 

This investigation, which has extended over a 
number of years and has been carried on in a 
most systematic manner, fully confirms the state- 
ment above made respecting the injurious psycho- 
logic effects of tobacco. The full report which is 
most interesting, will doubtless be published shortly 
by the committee above referred to. 

Smoker's Euphoria. 

The late B. W. Richardson condemned the use 
of tobacco and other narcotic drugs, because they 
produce an "unearned felicity, ,, that is, an illi- 
gitimate pleasure. 

Only lawful pleasures are safe. The tobacco- 
user, the drug habitue of any sort, creates an ar- 



86 TOBACCOISM 

tificial tickle of mind or nerves by means of a drug, 
by drawing upon his vital reserve, his capital, the 
proper function of which is to supply the energy 
needed to keep the vital machinery going through 
the years of age weakening and decline. 

A peculiarity of these artificial felicities is that 
they soon cease to be felicitous, and only become 
rescues from misery. De Quincey drank a pint 
of laudanum a day. He declared that he did not 
take the drug because of any pleasure derived 
from it, but to save him from the misery he suf- 
fered without it, which he described as "the very 
torments of the damned." Not a few tobacco 
users who have discovered that tobacco does 
them harm, continue to smoke for the same rea- 
son; in other words, they are drug addicts. 

Tobacco Lessens Efficiency. 

Dr. George Fisher conducted a series of experi- 
ments at the Y. M. C. A. College of Springfield, 
by which he demonstrated that all smokers show 
a loss in precision in feats requiring accuracy of 
aim. The tests employed were target practice 
with baseball throwing and rifle shooting. Old 
smokers showed immediately after smoking one 
cigar a loss of accuracy amounting to 11 per cent. 
Non-smokers showed after smoking a loss of effi- 
ciency of 13 per cent. After two cigars the non- 
smokers showed a loss in accuracy of 18 per cent. 

The experiments were repeated on five days and 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 87 

were applied to eleven subjects. Four tests out 
of five showed clearly the damaging effects of to- 
bacco in feats requiring clearness of vision and 
perfect muscular co-ordination. That is, accuracy 
of aim. 

Meylan, of Columbia University, in a careful 
study of 223 college students, showed that "in 
scholarship the non-smokers exhibited a distinct 
advantage." Professor Meylan added, "it is gen- 
erally conceded that the use of tobacco by college 
students is closely associated with idleness, lack of 
ambition, lack of application and low scholarship." 

Dr. Jay W. Seaver found that of 100 students 
taking highest honors at Yale, 95 were non- 
smokers, only five smokers. 

It has been stated that an examination of the 
class records of Harvard University (Baines) 
showed that for fifty years not one tobacco user 
has stood at the head of his class, and this not- 
withstanding the fact that five out of six students 
are smokers. 

An elaborate study of the effects of tobacco 
upon mental efficiency was made a few years ago 
by Dr. A. D. Bush, of the University of Vermont. 
The observations were made upon medical stu- 
dents who were subjected to more than 2,000 
separate tests of the most thoroughly scientific 
character to determine the influence of tobacco 
upon the senses and upon mental and nervous 
activities. 



88 TOBACCOISM 

The results are thus summarized by the author, 
(N. Y. Medical Journal) : 

1. A series of 120 tests on 15 men showed that 
tobacco decreases mental efficiency 10.5 per cent. 

2. The loss in the field of imagery was 22 per 
cent. 

3. Marked losses occurred also in the fields of 
perception and association. 

4. The greatest injury was done by cigarettes. 

5. Nicotine was always found in cigarette 
smoke. 

6. Pyridine was found invariably present in to- 
bacco smoke. 

Tobacco Inspiration, 

Said Colonel S. S. McClure when asked by the 
writer what he would do with a certain problem, 
"I don't know. I would spread the matter out 
before me on a table and sit down and wait for 
a flash!' 

Every successful writer knows what the editor 
meant by a "flash" — a spark, a rocket, a comet or 
a shooting star right out of the "blue," dashing 
up out of the subconsciousness, the source of all 
our mental product, the place where ideas are 
made. 

The most fertile moments, the time when one 
gets a veritable meteoric shower of ideas is when 
awaking from a completely restorative sleep. 
When one ends a period of sleep in which the 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 89 

fatigue poisons and all the rest of the obstruc- 
tive rubbish have been washed out of the brain and 
strained out of the blood by the kidneys, the 
automatic machinery of the mind is in efficient 
working order; the wireless receiving instrument 
is perfectly "tuned," and star showers of ideas 
break readily into consciousness. 

This is one of the things the smoker loses. 
He wakes with his head in a fog. He gets no 
flashes, no star showers. His mind is blank until 
he gets his pipe or his cigarette started. Then 
he begins to get pictures, pipe pictures, smoke 
inspirations which he mistakes or substitutes for 
"flashes", and he very naturally drifts into the idea 
that smoking helps his imagination and that he 
cannot write without it. 

That tobacco aids the literary worker is an 
error. The writer has proven this many times. 
A good case in point is that of the late lamented 
Jacob Riis, one of the most beautiful characters it 
has been our fortune to meet. Mr. Riis had suf- 
fered for years from anginia pectoris, a painful 
and serious heart trouble of a sort which is often 
produced and is always much aggvavated by to- 
bacco. But he continued to smoke thinking that 
he must do so to keep his imagination going so 
he could write. After some persuasion, he made 
the attempt to dispense with his cigars and in a 
letter to the writer, stated that he found he had 
been deceived. He discovered that his imagination 



90 TOBACCOISM 

worked far better without the narcotic. After a 
few weeks' abstinence, he said in a letter to the 
writer, "I find I was mistaken about tobacco. I 
have just finished the best thing I ever wrote and 
without a sniff of the weed." 

A pipe inspiration is a poor substitute for a 
real flash out of the "blue." 

Robert Louis Stevenson was an inveterate 
smoker, and died from a malady of which to- 
bacco is a frequent and potent cause. He knew 
very well the evil effects of smoking, but had be- 
come a slave to the drug. He told Thomas Rus- 
sell Sullivan, when asked about his way of work- 
ing, "one ought never to write after drinking, and 
it is better, I believe, to write without smoking — 
but I can't." He was a cigarette addict, and died 
at 45. 

Tobacco Blindness. 

Nicotine is a poison to the optic nerve or nerve 
of sight. Its continuous use during a long period 
of time often results in the production of blindness 
through destruction of the nerves of sight. This 
destruction is not complete, but lessens the effi- 
ciency of the eye to a marked degree by paralyz- 
ing the nerves of sight in such a way as to lessen 
the visual field. The condition of the visual fields 
is easily discoverable by certain tests and is a 
highly valuable test for the effects of tobacco not 
only upon the nervous system, but of the body 
in general. 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 91 

Many authors report cataract of the eye in horses 
eating food containing tobacco seeds. This has 
been observed in Australia and in Virginia. 

Parsons and Pandi, also Walicka, have observed 
degeneration of the optic nerve. 

Langley and Anderson demonstrated the develop- 
ment of amblyopia in rabbits as the result of to- 
bacco poisoning. 

McKenzie, one of the pioneers in the scientific 
treatment of diseases of the eye, so long ago as 
1840, declared the use of tobacco to be "a frequent 
cause of amaurosis. ,, 

Dr. Schweinitz names as the cause of amblyopia 
or axial neuritis, the use of tobacco and alcohol and 
states that of all substances "tobacco is the one most 
responsible. ,, 

The same author reports the case of a woman 
who did not smoke but who worked in a tobacco 
factory and who suffered from amblyopia (sudden 
blindness in this case). The patient quickly re- 
covered after she left the factory. 

This form of blindness is most common in old 
smokers, those who have indulged fifteen years or 
more. Occasionally tobacco blindness develops in 
young smokers. 

According to Dr. Booth (Alienist and Neurologist, 
1915), the use of tobacco is the most common of all 
causes of loss of sight and dimness of vision. 

Smokers who experience failure of health from 
any cause are likely to suffer loss of sight from the 



92 TOBACCOISM 

use of tobacco in quantities which had previously 
been borne without apparent injury. 

Color blindness is one of the early symptoms of 
approaching tobacco blindness. Renouncing the use 
of tobacco generally results in a speedy cure. 

How much tobacco is required to produce to- 
bacco blindness? In a case in the English courts 
in which a bricklayer suffered from defective eye- 
sight, claimed to be the result of injury to his head 
by a falling brick, a physician testified that smoking 
half an ounce of tobacco a week would cause to- 
bacco blindness. 

According to the New York Medical Journal, a 
prominent American railway organization has barred 
tobacco from certain branches of the business because 
of the liability of smokers to color blindness through 
the practice of the habit. 

The blurring of sight, dilated pupils, and ability 
to see better after twilight than in full daylight, are 
all evidences of disease of the nerves of sight. 

Another symptom connected with the eye, which 
the confirmed smoker may often notice, is the long 
retention of bright images in the eye. If a person 
looks at a bright object, as a window when the sun 
is shining out of doors, and then closes the eyes, or 
looks at a blank wall or a sheet of white paper, he 
will still see the form of the window, the sash bars, 
the glass, etc., for a few seconds. If the eyes are in 
a healthy condition, the image disappears very 
quickly; but when the nerves of the eye have been 



EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON BRAIN AND NERVES 93 

partially paralyzed by the use of tobacco, these im- 
ages will sometimes remain for several minutes. 
Old smokers sometimes use this as a means of de- 
termining when they have smoked too long. When 
they notice that images are long retained, they 
know that the degree of poisoning of the nervous 
system is reaching the danger point, and lay the 
pipe away for a few hours. 

Tobacco Deafness. 

Tobacco users are sometimes afflicted by a pecu- 
liar form of ear disease, the chief symptom of which 
is sudden loud or shrill sounds in the ears. These 
sounds are sometimes due to an enormous exag- 
geration of slight sounds, as the chirping of a 
cricket, the ringing of a bell, or some similar source 
of sound, but generally the sound is wholly subjec- 
tive, that is, originates entirely in the ear, and is due 
to the diseased condition of the auditory nerves re- 
sulting from the use of tobacco. 

Teran, a famous French specialist, states (de 
TAction du Tabac sur TAudition), "My conclusion 
is that we should not hesitate to warn absolutely 
against any kind of use of tobacco, under any form, 
in persons who belong to families where deafness 
is hereditary, or who have sclerotic lesions. Be- 
sides the dangers of neuritis, the tubal catarrh, the 
frequently recurring inflammatory lesions of the 
middle ear suffice to aggravate the development of 
a slowly progressive deafness, which is incurable. 



94 TOBACCOISM 

I believe that abstention in these cases may be ex- 
tremely favorable." 

Wyatt Wingrave reports "eight cases of nervous 
deafness in patients aged between twenty-four and 
forty years." (Jour. Am. Med. Ass'n. 1905). 



Why Athletes in Training Do Not 
Smoke 

Athletes, when in training, are never allowed to 
smoke. Every trainer is familiar with its deadly 
effects. 

Some years ago Dr. W. P. Lombard, professor of 
Physiology of the University of Michigan, himself 
a smoker, conducted a lengthy series of observa- 
tions for the purpose of determining the influence of 
smoking upon muscular work. The amount of the 
work done was carefully measured and recorded 
by means of delicate instruments of precision. The 
results are thus summarized by the Professor {Jour. 
Phys. Vol XIII, p. 44) : 

"The record of these successive observations 
shows that the effect of one cigar of moderate 
strength was to lessen the work of which the subject 
was capable, from 10.4 kilogrammeters (75-foot 
pounds) to 2.1 kilogrammeters (15-foot pounds), 
the number of times that the weight could be lifted 
being reduced from 86 to 12. This occurred, too, 
at the time of day when the strength is usually 
increasing. The influence of the tobacco was not 
felt until more than five minutes after the subject 
began to smoke, and it increased throughout the 
hour that the smoking was continued. 

"The depressing effect began to pass off very soon 
after the cigar was finished. A considerable recov- 

95 



96 TOBACCOISM 

ery occurred within eleven minutes ; but it was not 
until 72 minutes after the cigar had been laid aside 
that the strength was completely restored." 

Dr. Abbe, a famous New York surgeon, states 
that at West Point, "smoking was prohibited in 
1891, and fifteen years later the summary of medi- 
cal records shows the great advantage in work and 
discipline. In college, a group of men subjected to 
ergograph tests during abstinence and again after 
four days' smoking, is said to have shown a forty 
per cent, loss of muscle power. In try-outs for foot- 
ball squads it is said that only half as many smok- 
ers as non-smokers are successful." (Medical Rec- 
ord, Jan., 1916.) 

Said Dr. Seaver, for many years Physical Director 
at Yale University: 

"Every schoolboy knows that when athletes are in 
training for a contest they are obliged to abstain 
absolutely from all forms of tobacco. Is this done 
on theoretical or on moral grounds ? Not at all. It 
is done because experience of many decades demon- 
strates that when the men use tobacco they cannot 
do as well as they can when free from its effects. 
Under the influence of tobacco the young man is 
less alert, less steady, and has less endurance. No 
man, when entering a contest, will knowingly and 
willingly handicap himself. 

"The muscle cells are also, apparently, only slight- 
ly affected by it, the nerve supply to the muscles 



WHY ATHLETES IN TRAINING DO NOT SMOKE 97 

being affected, the practical motor ability is greatly 
impaired." 

The latest advertising scheme of the tobacconists 
is to publish the pictures of athletes who smoke. 
Athletes, as a class, are given to self-indulgence 
when they are not in training, but no athlete smokes 
when in training. This important fact the tobacco 
advertisers neglect to mention. 

Every man is running a race with Father Time, 
and is in training for success or failure. The man 
who smokes will certainly be overtaken by the old 
man with the sickle sooner than if he had not 
smoked. Tobacco is a handicap which no man who 
desires to live as long and efficient a life as possible 
can afford to indulge. 

All Experts Avoid Tobacco. 

Says Brooks (N. Y. Med. Jour, 1915), "The phy- 
sician or lawyer, the violinist and the rifleman, have 
learned to know that before the hour of stress to- 
bacco is a detriment to a high type of performance." 

Engineers, scientists and experts in many profes- 
sions, have learned the damaging influence of smok- 
ing and ceased to indulge the weed. (See Preface.) 
Said Judge Eliot, an eminent lawyer, "I never 
smoke before I am to address a jury." Said an 
eminent English physician, when offered a cigar, 
"No, thank you ! I do not smoke ; I am a surgeon/' 

The above observations are abundantly confirmed 
by the experience of Arctic explorers. An eminent 



98 TOBACCOISM 

physician, a professor in a large eastern university, 
recently stated that in selecting men for his expe- 
ditions a famous explorer positively refused to ac- 
cept a man who used tobacco in any form. 

Football Players Avoid Tobacco. 

Several years ago (1912) Dr. Frederick Pack of 
the University of Utah made a careful study of the 
relation of smoking to the game of football as played 
by university men. Data was gathered from four- 
teen State universities and colleges and led to the 
following significant conclusions : 

"1. In the 'try-outs' for football squads, only 
half as many smokers as non-smokers are success- 
ful. 

"2. In the case of able-bodied men, smoking is 
associated with loss of lung capacity amounting to 
practically ten per cent. 

"3. Smoking is invariably associated with low 
scholarship. 

"Smokers furnish twice as many failures and con- 
ditions as do non-smokers." 

Hon. W. W. Roper, of Philadelphia, an old foot- 
ball player, in a recent number of Collier's says, "Any 
football player who lets himself get out of condition 
is exceedingly quick to discover the penalty. About 
the first thing he learns is to let tobacco and liquor 
alone." 

Why shouldn't the business man, the professional 
man, the statesman, as well as the sportsman, show 



WHY ATHLETES IN TRAINING DO NOT SMOKE 99 

equal interest to protect his body from the evil effects 
of a drug which is the deadly foe of efficiency, both 
mental and physical? 

In view of the above facts it is certainly in place 
to inquire whether the college "smoker" is a means 
of promoting the mental and physical training and 
the college "culture" which our higher institutions 
of learning are intended to secure to the youth of 
the country. The answer is obvious. Thousands of 
young men have smoked their first cigar after going 
to college and have found in the cigar the opening 
wedge to other vices from which the sweet, restrain- 
ing influences of home and church had previously 
protected them. 

The "smoker" is the enemy of good health, of 
good scholarship, of good morals. It is fair to say 
that most college presidents tolerate the "smoker" 
only because it is so firmly entrenched as a social 
custom of long standing, that it has acquired almost 
the dignity of an "institution." Colleges and uni- 
versities should prohibit the use of tobacco by stu- 
dents. Those educational institutions which do not 
do this fail to do their duty to the young men placed 
under their care. 

A college president or professor who smokes sets 
an unworthy example to his pupils and ought to be 
considered disqualified to bear the responsibilities 
of an educator and trainer of youth. 

Half the newspapers of the country, with thou- 
sands of deluded mothers, during the war joined 



100 TOBACCOISM 

hands in helping the American Tobacco Trust to 
conduct an enormous sampling campaign and fairly 
to smother the American army with tobacco smoke. 

The prepared copy which docile newspapers pub- 
lished offered the most inane and silly reasons for 
sending the soldier cigarettes. 

"Soothe the poor suffering soldier in the trenches," 
was the pathetic wail of the tobacco trust, the most 
useless and destructive of business activities, rival- 
led only by opium smugglers and moonshiners. 

Try to imagine the board of directors of the To- 
bacco Trust sitting around in their smoke-filled of- 
fices puffing cigarettes and wiping their weeping 
eyes with tobacco leaves because of their sympathy 
for the poor American soldiers suffering in the 
trenches. This hypocritical blubbering is worse 
than "tommy rot", whatever that is. 

Tobacco is a narcotic. The soldier needs the 
stimulus of good food and fresh air and warmth and 
the full possession of all his faculties and command 
of his maximum efficiency. 

The soldier's training has for its purpose to pre- 
pare him for a supreme effort in behalf of his country. 

It is to make him ready to exert at any moment 
all his carefully cultured strength and skill to meet 
the assault of the enemy. 

To narcotize the soldier is to unfit him for his 
task, to undo the work accomplished by his long 
and arduous training. 



WHY ATHLETES IN TRAINING DO NOT SMOKE 101 

"But the surgeon administers anesthetics to miti- 
gate the sufferings of his patient/' said a college 
professor, "why not have the same consideration for 
the soldier?" 

That's true, professor, we give anesthetics to our 
patients but not to the surgeon! 

The soldier is the surgeon. The enemy is the 
subject. The more the enemy is soothed the easier 
to conquer him. But the more the soldier is nar- 
cotized, the less his efficiency as a soldier. 

It is the testimony of many cigarette smokers 
that they derive no positive pleasure from smoking. 
They only smoke because they are nervous and 
shaky and fly to the cigarette for relief. 

Suppose a soldier in the trenches happens to get 
out of cigarettes just before an assault on the 
enemy. He is already half defeated by his after- 
smoke misery. 

The cigarette does the soldier no good. It does 
him harm. It does not lessen his miseries, it adds 
to them. 

The confirmed smoker is miserable all the time 
unless he is smoking. 

The non-smoker is not bothered about cigars or 
cigarettes. He knows nothing of cigarette miseries. 
He has better wind, better resistance to disease, a 
stronger heart, sharper eyesight, steadier nerves, a 
surer aim, and is able to endure the hardships of 
the trench without the aid of "soothers'*, which im- 



102 TOBACCOISM 

pair every ability which the good soldier needs to 
make him a valiant defender of his cause. 

In telling of his great privations and hardships in 
his interesting book, "Outwitting the Hun", Mr. 
O'Brien has this to say about tobacco: 

"It was a mighty fortunate thing for me that I 
was not a smoker. Somehow I have never used to- 
bacco in any form, and I was now fully repaid for 
whatever pleasure I had foregone in the past as a 
result of my habits in that particular; because my 
sufferings would have been intensified now, if in ad- 
dition to lack of food and rest, I had had to endure 
a craving for tobacco." 

Will not the good women of clubs which raised 
money for the tobacco fund to buy cigarettes to 
"soothe the poor soldier in the trenches" (and inci- 
dentally enrich the tobacco trust), now aid in the 
distribution of literature showing up the evils of 
the tobacco habit? 

Dr. Crafts has well said : "Many a young man who 
went to the war with clean hands, whose after-the- 
war career will be blighted by the 'yellow ticket* on 
his fingers, will chide, if he does not curse, the 
Christian agencies by which cigarettes were thrust 
upon him, when he had a right to know from these 
guides the present and future injury that would re- 
sult from their use." * * * 



The Evil Effects of Tobacco upon 
Nutrition 

Tobacco, like other poisons, profoundly damages 
the glands of the internal secretions, the so-called 
"endocrines." These glands control the nutritive 
processes, the metabolism of the body. The remark- 
able influence of the secretions of the thyroid, pitui- 
tary and adrenal glands upon growth, development 
and the maintenance of physical and mental vigor, 
is one of the most interesting and startling discov- 
eries resulting from modern pychologic research. 

In addition to their influence upon growth and 
nutrition, these glands have another remarkable 
function which is highly essential to the welfare of 
the body. Together with the liver and certain other 
organs, they constitute a system of defense against 
poisons, especially organic poisons, that is, the 
poisons of animal or vegetable origin. 

When the body is habitually flooded with so viru- 
lent a poison as nicotine, and other still more highly 
toxic substances found in tobacco smoke, an exces- 
sive amount of work is required of these glands, and 
they become inefficient not only in the destruction 
of poisons but also in the performance of their other 
functions, by which growth is promoted and de- 
velopment regulated. The result is seen in the 
dwarfing effect of tobacco smoking upon young ani- 
mals exposed to tobacco smoke and boys who smoke 

103 



104 TOBACCOISM 

cigarettes. The same destructive influence is to be 
observed in adults ; but in adults, this destructive in- 
fluence shows itself in the lowering of efficiency and 
the shortening of life. 

The function of the endocrines, or internal secre- 
tions, is to maintain the youthful state of the body. 
So long as they retain their integrity, senility, or 
old age, is held at bay. 

Tobacco-using shortens life by hastening the ap- 
pearance of senility and through the same means by 
which it dwarfs development and hinders growth. 
The certain proof of this is to be found in the de- 
structive effect of smoking upon the genital glands, 
which are highly important factors in promoting 
longevity as well as development. 

Meyer (Medical Record, 1920) has shown how 
tobacco damages the parathyroids and the adrenals, 
two important glands which control growth and nu- 
trition, acting through the sympathetic, for which 
the poisons of tobacco have a special affinity. 

Tobacco Destroys the Sex Glands and Hinders 
Reproduction. 

A cock was placed every night in a chamber in 
which six grams of ordinary caporal tobacco was 
burned during the night. Of 48 eggs laid by 6 pullets 
only 32 hatched (two-thirds). Nine of the chickens 
died in a few days (28 per cent). The cock was ex- 
changed for another cock that had had no tobacco. Of 
the eggs laid by the same hens only one in a dozen 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 105 

was found infertile (8.3 per cent). Of 32 chickens 
hatched only 4 died (12.5 per cent). The chickens of 
the tobacco-poisoned cock were meager and feeble and 
lacked animation and the plumage was rough. These 
experiments were made by Depierris. 

A report comes from Petaluma, California, that 
many flocks of hens in that region have acquired the 
tobacco habit. Tobacco dust is used freely in the 
gardens to destroy parasites. The hens thus come in 
contact with tobacco and, curiously, have acquired a 
liking for it; but the poultry men are not at all dis- 
posed to encourage this new departure on the part of 
the hens, for it has become evident that the effect of 
the tobacco is highly deleterious, since it greatly dimin- 
ishes the egg production. The poultry men have 
found that the more tobacco the hen swallows, the 
fewer eggs she lays. 

Petit gave tobacco to guinea-pigs, dogs, cocks and 
rabbits, both male and female. The tobacco was given 
in the form of smoke or mixed with their food. The 
result was rapid sclerosis of the ovaries and testicles. 
In experiments made by Dr. Gy it was found that the 
young of guinea-pigs and rabbits subjected to tobacco 
were generally born dead or died soon after birth. 
This was found true in the case of all animals experi- 
mented upon. A post-mortem examination of the 
young showed their livers to have undergone the same 
changes noted in the livers of their parents. 



106 TOBACCOISM 

It is well known that nicotine affects smooth muscle 
tissue; hence it must act injuriously upon the uterus. 

Nicotine has been found by various observers in 
the amniotic fluid of the fetus, also in the milk of 
nursing animals. 

The Effects of Tobacco upon Growth 

Tobacco produces general disturbance in nutrition, 
as indicated by loss of weight. 

Roger showed that a solution of nicotine, two parts 
to the thousand, stopped the growth of certain plants. 

Richon and Perrin (1908) injected two young rab- 
bits out of a litter of six with infusions of tobacco. 
The weight decreased notably. They ceased to grow. 
When the injections were stopped they rapidly gained 
their weight and resumed growth. 

Fleig subjected young animals to the influence of 
tobacco smoke. He observed "for a long time, even 
after the inhalation of the smoke ceased, the animals 
remained incompletely developed and in a state of 
very marked inferiority to the control animals/' 

Certain dog fanciers produce dwarf dogs by admin- 
istering nicotine to them in some form. 

Smoking has the same effect upon boys. 

In 1906 a special committee of the House of Lords 
of the English Parliament, reported a drastic bill to 
prevent juvenile smoking. The committee called 
especial attention to the fact that while boys showed 
many evidences of deterioration, lessened height, and 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 107 

as professor McKeever informs us, were often ob- 
served to be "sallow, sore-eyed, puny, squeaky-voiced, 
sickly, short-winded, and nervous/' no signs of deter- 
ioration were noted among girls. 

Seaver, who studied Yale students, found that non- 
smoking students increased in height and in chest girth 
one-fourth more than the smokers. The increase in 
chest capacity of the non-smokers was most notable, 
exceeding that of the smokers by 77 per cent. 

The deleterious influence of tobacco upon the young 
is universally recognized. Of 600 school children half 
were in one case found seriously impaired, the result 
of cigarette smoking. 

Educators universally condemn the use of tobacco. 
In many other countries and in several States of this 
country, laws exist prohibiting the use of cigarettes by 
minors. This fact is sufficient evidence that the injur- 
ious influence of tobacco upon the young is fully recog- 
nized and universally conceded. 

The Journal of the American Medical Association, 
the most authoritative and influential medical publica- 
tion in any language, takes an unequivocal stand 
against the use of tobacco: 

"Prevent its use among the young, and in a few 
years it will be a habit of the past! 3 

That is, let the old smokers continue if they will 'till 
the habit kills them off, and in the meantime educate 
the rising generation to let the drug alone. Education 



108 TOBACCOISM 

is the only means by which the tobacco nuisance can 
be suppressed. 

An eminent physiologist recently reported the results 
of an interesting experiment for the purpose of deter- 
mining the effects of tobacco smoke upon the develop- 
ment of rats. 

The rats were exposed for definite periods, daily, to 
the influence of tobacco smoke, which was described as 
having a degree of density about equal to that of the 
smoke-ladened air breathed by the participants in a 
"college smoker." Little effect was observed upon 
the rats of the first generation, but the second genera- 
tion showed very pronounced retardation of growth. 
At the age of six weeks, the smoking rats had attained 
only about half the size of rats the same age which 
had not inhaled tobacco smoke. 

This experiment confirms in a most striking way 
the observation long since made of the retarding ef- 
fects of cigarette smoking upon the development of 
boys, and clearly shows the importance of the enact- 
ment of laws prohibiting the use of tobacco by the 
young. 

More definite details of the experiment are not given 
for the reason that the research is still in progress, 
under the supervision of the Committee of Fifty to 
Study the Tobacco Problem, which will publish a re- 
port in full when the research is completed. 

Professor Cattell, editor of the Science Monthly, 
and one of the most eminent scientists in this country, 
has recently called attention to the startling fact that 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 109 

the height of the average American has fallen off 
two and one-half inches since the Civil War. This 
is a most important observation and should lead to a 
diligent inquiry into the cause of this rapid physical 
deterioration. It is worth noting that within this 
same period of about sixty years cigarette-smoking 
has been introduced into this country and has grown 
until in 1920 the consumption reached the enormous 
total of 46 billions. Evidently the cigarette is stunt- 
ing and dwarfing the American race. It is a roe 
poison. 

Tobacco No Protection Against Infection, But the 
Reverse. 

That the use of tobacco may be the means of di- 
rectly transmitting disease is well known. A cigar- 
maker in finishing a cigar sometimes puts the end in 
his mouth, and syphilis or tuberculosis may be com- 
municated in this way. It has recently been proved 
that diphtheria and other infections may be trans- 
mitted by means of the "cigar cutter." On this account, 
the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently 
passed an ordinance prohibiting the use of the cigar 
cutter. 

A writer in American Medicine speaks as follows 
of the danger of infection from the cigar cutter : 

"A person will often after he has first held his 
cigar in his mouth step to the counter and put his cigar 
into the cutter. This dangerous practice is so common 



110 TOBACCOISM 

that it can be witnessed time after time at every cigar 
stand. Undoubtedly it has been one of the principal 
means of spreading infection among those who smoke 
cigars/' 

That smokers are more liable than others to infec- 
tions of various sorts is known, and is probably the 
result of the lowering of vital resistance which the 
use of the drug always produces. 

Throat and bronchial affections are most common 
among smokers. "Smoker's sore throat" is a recog- 
nized malady. The Phipps Institute reports show a 
larger percentage of deaths from lung tuberculosis 
among smokers and much smaller proportion of 
recoveries. 

Dr. Lizars states that during an epidemic of cholera 
he observed that smokers were much more liable to 
the disease than non-smokers, and in much more 
malignant form. 

Capt. Pettingill reports that he once lost half his 
crew of sailors of yellow fever in Havana and noted 
that all who died were tobacco users, and all who re- 
covered were non-users. 

Tobacco smoke has some slight antiseptic properties 
the same as the smoke of other substances, but its 
value as an antiseptic has been greatly exaggerated. 

Many bacteria will grow in decoctions and infusions 
of tobacco, no matter what their degree of concentra- 
tion. 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 111 

The bactericide properties of tobacco smoke is not 
special to it. The smoke of any dry vegetable what- 
ever, such as hay, for example, has exactly the same 
qualities. This fact is confirmed by the work of 
Trillat. 

It is an error to suppose that the number of mi- 
crobes in the cavity of the mouth diminishes under the 
action of tobacco smoke. There is also no foundation 
for the belief that the habit of cigarette smoking ren- 
ders the body more resistant to infectious maladies. 

In order to test this question, Gy inoculated with 
tuberculosis many guinea-pigs that had previously been 
inoculated with tobacco, and at the same time inocu- 
lated numerous controls that had had no tobacco. The 
controls survived longer in every case. 

Leva (1907) injected several rabbits with one and a 
half to two milligrams (1-40 to 1-30 grain) of nicotine 
a day. He injected some of these rabbits with Eberth's 
bacillus (typhoid) and tested the serum for antibodies. 
Several controls were also injected with typhoid. The 
serum of the rabbit that had had no tobacco contained 
a much larger proportion of antibodies than than did 
the serum of the tobacco-poisoned rabbits. This shows 
that tobacco prevents the formation of antibodies in 
the blood and so hinders the development of resistance 
to disease. 

Gy conducted experiments with the diphtheria 
toxin, and found that guinea-pigs that had been 
poisoned with tobacco died much more rapidly than 
controls, the controls living many hours longer. 



112 TOBACCOISM 

The explanation is simple. The liver of the tobacco- 
poisoned animal is crippled, and hence not able to 
protect the body against any new poison which may 
be introduced. This was clearly shown by the post- 
mortem examination of these rabbits. The livers of 
the tobacco-poisoned rabbits showed sclerosis, hemor- 
rhages, and fatty degeneration. The livers of the con- 
trols showed no degeneracy. 

It thus appears that science has clearly and fully 
demonstrated that smoking affords no protection 
against infection. On the contrary, the use of tobacco 
lowers vital resistance and thus opens the door to in- 
fection and lessens the chance of recovery. 

Tobacco a Cause of Acne. 

"Weinbrenner," Journal A. M. A., relates that: 
"In eight cases of rebellious necrotic acne, the affec- 
tion disappeared when the men gave up tobacco. The 
acne subsided completely in a few weeks after the 
men gave up smoking. One of the men chewed 
tobacco, and this was the last one to recover, over two 
months elapsing before the acne disappeared in this 
case." 

Tobacco a Cause of Diabetes, 

By upsetting the fine adjustments of the body, to- 
bacco favors especially the development of such dis- 
orders as exophthalmic goitre and diabetes. Dr. Hein- 
rich Stern, an eminent New York physician, holds that 
the use of tobacco certainly aggravates an existing 




Tobacco Cancer 




HWVAItt. /WW 



cyt^otfvc fwwns 



Healthy Artery 



Artery of Smoker 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 113 

diabetes, increasing the sugar and the gravity of the 
disease. 

Tobacco Cancer. 

That the use of tobacco may cause cancer of 
the mouth has been long known. Dr. Abee of New 
York City recently (1916) reported one hundred cases 
of cancer of the mouth and throat, observed within 
fifteen months, of whom nine-tenths were inveterate 
tobacco users. 

General Grant was an inveterate smoker and died 
of cancer of the throat. 

The irritation from the pipe stem is regarded as a 
factor in causing cancer of the lip, as is also the heat 
of the smoke, especially when a short pipe is used. 

Dr. Bloodgood, Professor of Surgery in Johns Hop- 
kins University, in the study of 200 cases of cancer of 
the lip, finds smoking a common factor. 

The Smoker's Legacy, 

Brooks has made the interesting observation that 
symptoms of injury from the use of tobacco, especially 
as regards the circulatory system, "are more likely to 
appear in descendants of smokers than in those free 
from this family trait." 

The writer observed a striking example of this some 
years ago, in the case of a veterinary surgeon who 
sought advice on account of shortness of breath. The 
cause was found to be a myocarditis probably due to 
smoking. "But/' said the patient, much surprised, 
"I am only forty-five. My father and mother are 



114 TOBACCOISM 

both nearly ninety years old and both have smoked all 
their lives/' In ten years he was dead with cardio- 
vascular disease. His son smoked and died of apo- 
plexy at forty-five. 

The enormous increase in the number of deaths 
from heart and kidney diseases in the last thirty years 
among men may be fairly attributed in part, at least, 
to the inherited weakness of heart and kidneys result- 
ing from the use of tobacco, and a vulnerability to the 
effects of this poison. It is well known that a special 
sensitivity to certain foods, to the pollens of plants 
which produce hay fever, and to certain other poisons, 
is often recognizable as a family trait. 

Dr. Henton White, an English physician (Journal 
A. M. A., 1904, p. 325) reports a number of cases in 
which patients showed a congenital susceptibility to the 
injurious effects of tobacco which might fairly be at- 
tributed to inheritance of tobacco injuries from smok- 
ing ancestors. 

Dr. Clifford Allbut, in his System of Medicine, 
writes : "One case is known to me, of a man whose 
health is excellent, who is by no means a neurotic 
subject, and whose heart stands work well in all other 
respects, in whom intermittance of the heart may oc- 
cur for many days if he remains for an hour or two 
in a room with many smokers." 

The late Dr. Norman Kerr held that tobacco "oper- 
ates as a contributory factor in the development of 
that neurotic diathesis which in some constitutions 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 115 

sets up the diseased condition of inebriety, either in 
the offspring or in the succeeding generation." 

Said Prof. D. T. McDougal, before the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, at its 
annual meeting in 1907 : 

"That the qualities and forms of living things are 
the final and net results of the action of environic con- 
ditions upon ancestral protoplasm, is almost universally 
agreed upon." 

Commenting on the above, Dr. Lichty, a well known 
medical practitioner, remarks: 

"This biologic fact is an added and forceful argu- 
ment that the nicotine saturated and poisoned proto- 
plasm tissue cannot genetically beget a standard 
healthy progeny. With this basic recognition, it is 
the doctor's duty to carefully consider the influence of 
tobacco-using upon the coming race; he should not 
remain either ignorant or silent upon the subject; if 
he does he is a derelict." 

"Data are now present in sufficient abundance that 
the tobacco habitue's offspring are not endowed with 
the same potentiality, mental acumen and stability nor 
physical endurance that the non-user's children possess. 
In the New York reformatory at Elmira, among 5,000 
subjects, whose average ages were under 18, 95 per 
cent, were users of tobacco." 

"A Swiss observer states that even the nursing 
mothers of tobacco using parents cannot afford the 



116 TOBACCOISM 

nourishment her offspring requires as adequately as 
one free from the taint of tobacco. Will this explain 
or afford one of the reasons for the dearth of nursing 
mothers in the third and fourth generations in free 
and fertile America ?" 

The evil hereditary effects of alcohol are known to 
be due to the effect of this poison upon the germ- 
plasm. Tobacco is a still more virulent poison than 
is alcohol, and it is generally employed in a manner 
which keeps the blood and the tissues in a state of 
saturation with tobacco-smoke poisons. 

A striking illustration of the destructive effects of 
nicotine upon the progeny of tobacco-using parents, is 
afforded by the observations of Dr. Kostral, physician 
to the royal tobacco factory of Iglan, near Vienna. Dr. 
Kostral noted that the infants of women working in 
the factory were short lived. One-third of all the 
infants born died within the first year. One-fifth of 
all the children showed evidence of poisoning of the 
brain and nerves and died of convulsions. Dr. K. 
observed that the milk of these saturated mothers 
smelled of nicotine, so that these unfortunate 
infants unquestionably suffered from chronic nicotine 
poisoning. 

Many men smoke at home and expose their families 
to the poisonous influence of tobacco smoke. The 
effects upon feeble infants and sensitive wives must 
be highly injurious and sometimes deadly. 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 117 

Tobacco a Cause of Race Degeneracy. 

Many different causes are operating to work the 
destruction of the human race. In great Britain, as 
in other old and densely populated civilized countries, 
stature is diminishing. According to Prof. Cart- 
wright, B. A., B. Sc, the average height of a Briton 
one hundred years ago was 5 feet 10 inches. Today 
the height of the average man in Great Britain is 
only five feet, five inches. 

It is well-known that tobacco disturbs appetite 
and digestion, that it stunts the growth of plants and 
animals. It seems just to attribute the marked phy- 
sical deterioration of British manhood, in part at 
least, to the tobacco habit. 

Said the late Dr. B. W. Richardson, one of the 
most sagacious and well informed of modern medi- 
cal men : 

"I do not hesitate to say that if a community of 
both sexes, whose progenitors were finely formed 
and powerful, were to be trained to the early prac- 
tice of smoking, and if marriage were confined to the 
smokers, an apparently new and a physically infer- 
ior race of men and women would be bred up." 

The New York Medical Journal, a highly respect- 
ed medical authority, holds tobacco responsible for 
the rapid deterioration of the Maoris, one of the 
finest races of men which has been discovered in 
modern times. Says the Journal: 

"When the Europeans first visited New Zealand 
they found the natives the most finely developed 



118 TOBACCOISM 

and powerful men among the islands of the Pacific. 
Since the introduction of tobacco, for which these 
men developed a passionate liking, they have, from 
this source alone, become decimated in numbers, 
and so reduced in stature and physical well-being 
as to be an altogether inferior type of men." 

Tobacco and Longevity. 

One of the most unimpeachable evidences of race 
degeneracy is the decreasing number of persons who 
attain great age. Centenarians are becoming ex- 
tinct. The proportion of centenarians to the general 
population differs greatly in various countries and 
agrees very well with the amount of tobacco con- 
sumed, but in inverse ratio. 

Bulgaria numbers among her people 1 centen- 
narian to the 1000 ; Spain, 1 to 40,000 ; France 1 to 
190,000; England, 1 to 200,000; Germany, 1 to 
700,00 ; in the United States, a younger population, 
1 to 25,000. 

It is an interesting fact that women, who rarely 
smoke, show twice as many centenarians as men. 
The oldest inhabitant is always a woman. As few 
women smoke, the last named fact has much signifi- 
cance. 

The medical director of a great life insurance 
company, himself a smoker, stated to the writer that 
he and the statistician of the company, a man of 
international reputation, had independently arrived 
at the conclusion that tobacco is responsible for 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 119 

about ten per cent, of the deaths which occur in 
smokers ; or, as he put it, "for every 100 deaths of 
non-smokers, 110 deaths would occur in smokers 
of like age living under like conditions." 
Women Smoke Less Than Men and Live Longer. 
The mortality statistics show six male deaths to 
five female decedents. Sufficient cause for the 
greater life expectancy in women is to be found in 
their being less addicted to the use of alcohol and 
tobacco. It is claimed that ninety per cent of all 
men smoke, while comparatively few women do so. 
The use of alcoholic liquors by women is much less 
than by men. Hunter has shown that the mortality 
of moderate drinkers is double that of abstainers, 
and according to Dwight, the records of the New 
England Mutual Life Insurance Company covering 
sixty years show that the mortality of smokers is 
57.6 per cent greater than that of non-smokers. 

A comparison of the mortality of the two sexes is 
instructive. 140 males die from disease of the ar- 
teries to 100 females. At the age of 20-24 years 300 
males die to 100 females. At the age period of 40-44 
years, 376 males die to 100 females. For the 50 
years between 20-70 years the proportion is 245 male 
decedents from disease of the arteries to 100 fe- 
males. 170 males die of angina pectoris to 100 
females. 

The great excess of male over female deaths be- 
gins at the age period from 15-25 years, the age 
when the smoking habit usually becomes estab- 



120 TOBACCOISM 

lished, and reaching its maximum at the age period 
of 40-44 years, the time of life when full maturity 
has been achieved and the old age process naturally 
begins. This is shown first in the hardening of the 
crystalline lens and the consequent loss in range of 
accommodation. In other words, the use of tobacco 
by 80-90 per cent of the male population hastens the 
development of senility in the blood-vessels, thus 
lessening life expectancy, since a man is as old as 
his arteries. 

Use of Tobacco by Women. 

Among civilized nations, tobacco has never been 
used by women to the same extent as by men, al- 
though at the present time the use of tobacco by 
women is increasing. 

Snuff dipping was at one time nearly universal 
among the women of the "poor white" class, but 
this filthy practice has in recent years declined to 
a marked degree. At the same time, however, the 
use of the cigarette by women has increased to a 
marked degree in certain circles in our great cities. 

The New York World asserts that probably 100,000 
New York women are smokers of cigarettes. 

There can be no doubt that the practice is no 
longer confined to street women and actresses and 
women of the "smart set/' as a few years ago, but 
is rapidly extending to the more conservative 
classes. The suffragette movement seems to be in 
part responsible for this. The effect of securing 
civil and political equality with men seems to be to 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 121 

develop in a certain type of feminine minds the de- 
sire to enter into all sorts of masculine activities and 
even to acquire the vices of men. Of course this is 
not a legitimate result of the battle of women for 
freedom, but rather an undesirable by-product. This 
tendency was illustrated recently by a London paper 
which showed a picture of ultra- fashionable young 
women smokers in loose trousers, the up-to-date 
style of smoking dress for women. 

The war has no doubt greatly extended the habit 
of smoking among women. A smoking craze has 
been set going in the country through a sort of in- 
cendiarism adroitly engineered by the tobacco trust. 
The public mind has been inoculated with the idea 
that soldiers must of necessity smoke and many 
young ladies have acquired the habit through a 
semi-patriotic impulse of good fellowship. 

During the war the tobacco trust captured the 
Women's Clubs and the Red Cross organization be- 
came the purveyor general for the tobacconist, put- 
ting a package of cigarettes into every soldier's 
"kit" along with other "necessaries" (?). 

Of course no one can question that women have 
as good a right to smoke as have men. Further, it 
must be granted that if smoking is necessary for 
men it is equally as necessary for women. No sound 
argument can be offered in defense of masculine 
smoking which will not apply equally to women. 

In the case of women, however, the question of 
motherhood comes into consideration. 



122 TOBACCOISM 

In Nancy, France, according to Dr. Mutrel, the 
death rate among breastfed children was extraordin- 
arily high because of the presence of nicotine in the 
milk of the mothers employed in the tobacco fac- 
tories. 

Dr. Kostral, an Austrian physician, found nico- 
tine both in the milk of nursing women employed 
in the tobacco factories and in the amniotic fluid — 
the fluid surrounding the infant before birth. 

Sajous mentions among the symptoms of poison- 
ing in an infant from exposure to a tobacco-laden 
atmosphere, loss of appetite, "smoker's eyes," list- 
less ways, restless nights, nausea and vomiting. 

When one recalls the deadly and dwarfing influ- 
ence of nicotine upon young life in both plants and 
animals (see foregoing statements and cuts), it is 
not to be wondered at that the effects of tobacco- 
using by mothers should be so disastrous. 

The tobacco-laden air of some houses must be a 
most unfavorable environment for a growing infant. 

But in addition to contributing to infant mortal- 
ity, there is ground for belief that the smoke habit 
among women must tend to lower the birth rate. 
The same disposition that would lead a woman to 
cultivate the tobacco habit would naturally lead her 
to avoid the perils, responsibilities and inconven- 
iences of motherhood. The birth rate of "smart 
set" mothers is the very lowest of all classes. Per- 
haps this fact is a gain to society rather than a loss, 
so far as this particular class is concerned ; but if all 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 123 

mothers should become smokers, what would be the 
effect upon the future of the race? 

Prof. Wilcox of Cornell University in a paper 
read before the Race Betterment Conference held 
at Battle Creek in 1914, showed by carefully com- 
piled statistics that if the birthrate shall continue 
to decline at its present rate of decrease, no babies 
will be born in the year 2000. No doubt a close 
inquiry into the matter will show that the increase 
of the tobacco habit among women is a contribut- 
ing factor to this phase of race degeneracy. 

Lewin states {Jour. Comp. Neurology) that in fe- 
male smokers menstrual disturbances are frequent 
and that abortion occurs often among female cigar 
makers. 

Lewin also notes that sexual power and inclin- 
ation are impaired by smoking and that impotence 
sometimes results. Lydston asserts that tobacco 
has a pronounced deleterious effect upon the genito- 
urinary tract. 

The increase of the cigarette habit among young 
women, bodes ill for the future of the race. The 
report comes from Paris, where smoking has been 
indulged by women longer and to a greater extent 
than in other civilized countries, that strong evi- 
dence has appeared that the effect of cigarette smok- 
ing is to unsex young women by producing prema- 
ture degeneration of the sex glands. One evidence 
of this is the development of the feminine mustache, 
which is becoming noticeably more frequent among 
young women smokers of Paris. 



124 TOBACCOISM 

Dr. Cummings, the surgeon-general of the U. S. 
Army, calling attention to the enormous increase in 
cigarette smoking in 1919 (47 per cent) appeals to 
American women to combat this vicious practice, 
telling them that it "causes nervousness and insom- 
nia and ruins the complexion/' and is "one of the 
worst evils in American life." 

Tobacco a Real Narcotic. 

That tobacco is a narcotic drug, a "pain killer", 
as definite if not as potent as chloroform and ether, 
is shown by the fact that "before the time of chloro- 
form and ether, tobacco was often administered to 
patients when great muscular relaxation was de- 
sired, as in cases of strangulated hernia and in frac- 
tures of the hip. This, plus a large dose of whiskey 
and morphine, rendered the patient fairly non-re- 
sistant to pain, during which time operations of even 
the most severe character were performed" (Isreal 
Bram, M. D.). 

The author of "The New North" tells us of meet- 
ing a man at Fort Providence (Mackenzie) who had 
undergone an amputation of a leg without an anes- 
thetic. David, one of the company's Old Guard, 
thus describes his operation : 

"I was a young fellow, me, when a fish-stage fell 
on me. I didn't pay no notice to my leg until it 
began to go bad, den I take it to the English church 
to Bishop Bompas. He cut 'im off wid meat-saw. 
No, I tak' not'in, me. I chew tobacco and take one 



EFFECTS UPON NUTRITION 125 

big drink of Pain-Killer. Yas, it hurt wen he strike 
se marrow. " 

"Heavens ! Didn't you faint with the awful pain ?" 
"What? Faint, me? No. I say, 'Get me my 
fire-bag, I want to have a smok , . ,, 

A drug which may in emergency take the place of 
chloroform is certainly not suited to general and 
habitual use as a "comforter," and cannot fail to work 
havoc with the vital machinery if so used, as would 
chloroform, opium, or any other narcotic or anesthetic 
drug. 

TOBACCO-USING A DRUG HABIT 

That tobacco is a form of "dope" as really as is 
opium, cocaine, or any other drug, cannot be denied. 
The confirmed cigarette smoker is as thoroughly en- 
slaved as is the opium smoker or. the alcohol inebriate. 
He is a "dope" fiend, to use a common, but rather re- 
pulsive phrase, an addict, and often requires the same 
restrictive measures to secure reclamation as does the 
confirmed alcoholic or opium habitue. 

Tobacco-using Leads to Alcoholic Intemperance. 

Naturally, one drug habit leads to another. It is 
rare to find an alcoholic who does not use tobacco in 
some form and often other drugs are used. 

There is a special reason for the association of the 
alcohol and tobacco habits ; a physiologic reason : 
Alcohol is a drug antidote for tobacco. 

Tobacco contracts the small arteries. This is the 
reason for the pallor observed in young smokers and 



126 TOBACCOISM 

in old smokers who have smoked to excess. Alcohol 
produces the opposite effect. It dilates the small arter- 
ies. This is the reason for the flushed face of the 
beer drinker and the red nose of the whiskey toper. 

A man who has smoked until his arteries are con- 
tracted, feels tense, nervous, irritable, restless, in spite 
of the narcotic effects of the drug. His blood-pressure 
is high and his breath a little "short." Besides, his 
secretions are checked, his mouth is dry. Alcohol re- 
verses these conditions. A cocktail or a toddy, a glass 
of champagne or a bottle of beer, relaxes the blood- 
vessels, relieves the nerve tension, restores comfort and 
so opens the way for more cigars. 

Narcotic drugs produce different, but kindred ef- 
fects. The exchange of one drug for another is going 
about in a circle rather than making progress. 

China has abandoned opium, but has surrendered 
completely to the cigarette. Possibly the last condition 
may prove to be worse than the first because more 
universal. 

Very few boys learn to drink without first learning 
to smoke. The same disposition which leads a man 
to see comfort in a cigar or a cigarette, leads him to 
look for the same or kindred pleasure in a glass of 
beer or a "high ball." 

There is a similar association between tobacco and 
the opium habit. Most opium addicts are also cigarette 
smokers. 



A DRUG HABIT 127 

Most cigarette smokers are also coffee topers, often 
taking daily several cups of strong, black coffee, or 
coco-cola, holding in solution many grains of caffeine. 
This, again, is a sort of antidotal association, although 
caffeine, like nicotine, raises blood pressure. 

When smoking is practiced to great excess, the 
pressure raising effect is reversed; pressure at first 
is raised and later lowered, and the need of a pres- 
sure raising drug is felt, hence coffee becomes as- 
sociated with the cigarette because it makes greater 
indulgence possible. Caffeine, being one of the 
most powerful of all known pressure raising drugs, 
will still act upon the heart and blood-vessels when 
the depressing effects of tobacco have been de- 
veloped by great excess. 

Shoemaker, an authority on drugs, tells us that: 
"In the east the tobacco is sometimes tinctured 
with opium, in order to increase the narcotic effect." 

Dr. John D. Quackenbos, of Columbia Univer- 
sity, in an address before the "Society for the 
Study of Alcohol and Narcotic Drugs," declared that 
tobacco creates an instinctive demand for alcohol, 
and that what he termed "the intemperate use of 
tobacco," "explains 75 per cent of all drink cases," 
adding that "the alcohol thirst is engendered and 
inflamed by smoke." 

Dr. Hamilton, superintendent of an "Institute" 
for the treatment of alcoholics, states that his experi- 
ence is : "That persons applying for treatment for 
both liquor and cigarettes, dread giving up their 



128 TOBACCOISM 

cigarettes more than they do the liquor. More- 
over, those who return to the use of cigarettes 
in after-life are almost certain to resume the use 
of liquor to allay the irritability of the nervous system 
produced by tobacco smoke inhalation." 

THE MORAL EFFECTS OF TOBACCO 
USING 

The only substantial apology offered for the use 
of tobacco is its psychic effect. Nobody claims 
that tobacco makes a man stronger or more endur- 
ing, clearer headed, keener of sight or hearing, 
more alert or in any way more efficient. Its effects 
are exactly the opposite as everybody knows. To- 
bacco is a narcotic. Its effects are those of a 
soother. It is in no sense a stimulant or an ex- 
citant. If a man feels more "fit" after a ciga- 
rette or a cigar, it is only because he has be- 
come a drug addict and was suffering for the want 
of his accustomed "dope," not because he is in 
any way stimulated or strengthened. 

Tobacco is a camouflage. It renders a man ob- 
livious for the moment to fatigue, business cares, 
domestic and social infelicities, and other causes 
of psychic distress, but noboby has even suggest- 
ed that tobacco cures any of these miseries. The 
man who is hungry smokes and no longer craves 
food, but he has not been fed. The hunger is there 
as before, but is hidden. The man who relieves 
fatigue by smoking has not been rested. The 
wasted nerves and muscles are weary as ever. 



MORAL EFFECTS 129 

Tobacco cannot take the place of food or rest. 
It does not solve business problems nor smooth 
out social or domestic difficulties. It is nothing 
but a psychic camouflage. 

Every smoker knows this. The resort to the 
cigar for comfort is, then, a confession of weak- 
ness, a willingness, even a desire, to be deceived, 
to be transported into a sham heaven. Even 
worse ; it is a confession of cowardice, of unwill- 
ingness to face and surmount the obstacles to phy- 
sical, mental or moral peace and comfort. 

The cigar is a foe to high ethical ideals. How 
many smokers find in the cigar a hiding place from 
the upbraiding of an uneasy conscience for small 
or large departures from strict rectitude, cannot 
be even conjectured. Certain it is that the cigar 
is an efficient "silencer." Said Tolstoi of his smok- 
ing days, "I never felt a twinge of conscience after 
the third whiff." 

That the use of tobacco impairs the fine sense 
of propriety and of regard for the rights and feel- 
ings of others, which refined breeding and the 
mores of genteel society demand, cannot be denied. 

The obstrustive manner in which smokers dis- 
play their cigars and pipes in public and private 
places, filling the air of cabs, waiting rooms, the- 
atres, offices, and all places where people congre- 
gregate, with the possible exception of churches 
and museums, with clouds of poisonous fumes and 
stale tobacco stenches which are often the occasion 



130 TOBACCOISM 

of great distress as well as inconvenience to non- 
smokers, is substantial proof of the wholesale 
moral injury resulting from the use of the weed. 

Mark Twain presented himself as a perfect illus- 
tration of this sort of moral damage. On one oc- 
casion, the humorist visited Oxford for the pur- 
pose of being honored with a degree which the 
great university had invited him to receive in re- 
cognition of his literary work. Smoking is strict- 
ly prohibited in Oxford, and Twain admits that he 
knew this, but confesses that he openly violated 
the rule nothwithstanding the fact that as a guest 
and the recipient of a distinguished favor, he was 
bound by every principle of honor and decent 
courtesy to conform to the customs of the place. 
Twain not only confessed his rudeness, but treated 
it as a joke, showing that his fine sense of pro- 
priety in conduct in relation to tobacco had be- 
come so benumbed and paralyzed by the smoke habit 
that he even gloried in his disgraceful conduct. 

Poor Twain at last became completely saturated 
with nicotine and literally smoked himself to death. 

Every habitual smoker carries about with him in 
his breath and his clothing, even when his pockets 
are not filled with tobacco or a lighted cigar burn- 
ing in his mouth or his hand, the strong offensive 
odor of a stale cigar, which is sickening to non- 
users, and even to many users, and appears to 
be wholly unconscious of the fact that his "bou- 
quet" is to a non-smoker a veritable breath from the 
Stygian pool of ancient fable. 



MORAL EFFECTS 131 

Nothing but a considerable degree of moral de- 
cadence could make a well-bred man so oblivious 
to the rights and feelings of others as is the aver- 
age smoker? 

Under the influence of tobacco, the judgment, 
the will, the conscience, the imagination, every 
mental and moral faculty, are changed — all are 
nicotinized. The smoker is transported to a nico- 
tinized heaven where all things are viewed through 
a cloud of tobacco smoke. In other words, the 
"pipe dream" is a sort of temporary drug insanity," 
as really an intoxication as an alcoholic "drunk." 

Dr. Tracy (Medical Review of Reviews, December, 
1917), draws the following very accurate picture of 
the psychology of a pipe "jag": 

"Tobacco intoxication is an egotistic narcosis. 
Tobacco makes the user feel like parading the 
narcosis and the manner and act of taking the nar- 
cotic. Tobacco narcotism is a grandeur narcosis. 
It is intrusive and obtrusive. It is good-nature- 
edly aggressive. It is so care-freeing to its user 
that it creates the impression that those with 
whom the user comes in contact are also free from 
care. It creates the impression that that which 
is so pleasant to the user is without question pleas- 
ant to every one else. In the narcosis there is not 
the least thought of possible impropriety in its 
use, or in anything connected with its use. And in 
still less degree is there anything like self-censure. 
So far, in fact, does this grandeur impression 



132 TOBACCOISM 

carry, that to the user of tobacco any opposition 
to its use at once suggests that there is mental 
abnormality in those who would interfere with 
the practice/' 

"What I shall say about the demoralizing and 
destructive effects of the cigarette habit is not 
the raving of a fanatic or the rabid utterance of a 
crank," said Leonard G. Broughton, M. D., in an 
address to men, at Beaumont Canada. "I speak 
from a personal knowledge of scientific truth. The 
smoke is inhaled into the lungs, the poisonous 
gases are communicated through the blood to the 
brain and to the nerve centers that control the 
moral sensibilities, stupefying and destroying. Soon 
the fine edge of moral distinction is blunted, the 
difference between right and wrong is blurred." 

A fair inference as to the moral influence of to- 
bacco may be drawn from the following statement 
made by a New York City magistrate : 

"Ninety-nine out of a hundred boys between the 
ages of 10 and 17 years who come before me 
charged with crime have their fingers disfigured 
by yellow cigarette stains." 

A rather caustic writer in the "Contributors 
Club" of The Atlantic Monthly, thus describes the 
psychologic effect of the cigar: 

"The cigar I always regard as the most patent 
symbol of blatant maleness. It can apparently be 
held in the teeth only at a certain angle, and this 
angle always gives a peculiarly rakish expression 



MORAL EFFTCTS 133 

to the most benevolent face. The cigar tends to 
bring out unconsciously in a man's expression all 
those saloon-keeper and tough-politician traits 
which are latent, I suppose, in every man." 

THE ENORMOUS ECONOMIC WASTE 
FROM TOBACCO 

Although the economic losses from the use of 
tobacco are of little consequence when compared 
to the injury to health, life and morals, they are 
well worth considering. 

The amount of money annually expended for 
tobacco in this country alone amounted, according 
to Professor H. W. Farnum of Yale University, in 
1917, to $1,200,000,000.00. This was more than all 
the metals mined (gold, silver, iron, copper, etc.), 
in 1915, an average year, one-half more than the 
coal mined, three times the amount expended for 
highways, more than the total expenditure for 
education. And what did tobacco give us in re- 
turn for this vast sum, sufficient to pay the in- 
terest on our war debt? Nothing at all but disease, 
death and race degeneracy. 

Tobacco exhausts the soil. It takes out of the 
soil more of the precious potash and other ele- 
ments needed for the production of food than does 
any other crop. Tobacco takes from the soil five 
times as much as does wheat, corn or potatoes. 
The two million acres devoted annually to tobacco 
culture if planted to wheat or corn would produce 



134 TOBACCOISM 

not less than 3,000,000,000 pounds of grain, which 
would feed six or seven million people for the 
entire year. There are many thousands of acres 
in the South and in New England which have 
been worn out by tobacco crops and practically 
spoiled for agricultural purposes. 

One of the greatest economic losses from to- 
bacco is in the fires produced by pipes, cigars and 
cigarettes or the matches used in lighting them. 
According to Professor Farnam, the loss from 
careless disposal of burning cigars or cigarettes 
amounts to nearly $100,000,000.00 a year. 'Fire 
Commissioner Johnson holds the causes named 
are responsible for one-fifth of all the fires which 
occur in this country. 

The fire which destroyed the great Equitable 
building was caused by a match used (doubtless) 
to light a cigarette. The terrible explosions which 
wrecked a part of Jersey City were caused by a 
fire started by a cigarette, as was also the Tri- 
angle Shirt Waist factory fire, which destroyed the 
lives of one hundred and forty girls. 

The aggregate direct and indirect economic losses 
due to tobacco, cannot be less than a billion and a 
half dollars annually. In these days of economic 
stress, why should such a useless waste be tolerated? 

APOLOGIES FOR THE TOBACCO HABIT 

The growing recognition by many thoughtful 
persons in recent years of the evil effects of to- 



ECONOMIC WASTE 135 

bacco, and the resulting efforts against this evil 
practice, has naturally led the partisans of the 
weed to come forward with arguments in its favor. 

Does a Man Need Soothing? 

One of the most frequently urged apologies for 
tobacco is its soothing effect. 

It is fair to raise the question, does a man in 
ordinary health and under ordinary conditions re- 
quire, like an irritable infant in arms, "a soother," 
or, is there any real profit in such a thing? 

This question is really a vital one, since if it is 
not needed as a soother, no apology whatever can 
be found for tobacco, for no one seriously claims 
that the drug improves the health, strengthens 
the heart, reinforces endurances, protects against 
disease, or does any other positively good or necessary 
thing. 

In seeking an answer, it is to be noted first of 
all that no one ever begins the use of tobacco for 
the purpose of securing the benefit of its soothing 
properties. Indeed, the first effects obtained from 
it are very far from soothing in character. The 
boy who has just smoked his first cigarette pre- 
sents a graphic picture of discomfort, even misery. 
It is only after the body has become inured to its 
poisonous effects that any soothing effects are to 
be noted. And old smokers are ready to confess 
that the exhilarating or pleasurable effects experi- 
enced at first ultimately disappear and are no 



136 TOBACCOISM 

longer felt. The truth is that the soothing effects 
of tobacco amount to little or nothing more than 
relief from the discomfort produced by the ab- 
sence of the drug when the tobacco "habit" has 
been established. That is, tobacco simply miti- 
gates the miseries which tobacco produces. 

No tobacco user under any circumstances is any 
better off with tobacco than is the non-user without it; 
and certainly when tobacco is not to be had, the non- 
user has the enormous advantage over the user that 
he does not suffer the horrible craving for the drug 
which is often about the worst misery which a human 
being can be called upon to endure. 

It is fair also to ask, Why should a strong man 
want to be soothed? Why should he desire to be 
made oblivious to any condition which he must 
meet, any obstacle which he must overcome or any 
problem which must be solved? 

The normal rest for the mind, all that any sound 
man requires, is afforded by sleep; when a man 
is awake, he ought to be in full possession of all 
his senses, alert to every emergency, ready to meet 
any difficulty or to attack any enemy which may 
oppose his progress or threaten his interests. 

"Soothers" and "all-day suckers" are for whin- 
ing infants and are not good even for them. No 
real man needs a smoke screen to hide from his 
consciousness the problems and eventualities which 
he should or must face. 

A New York surgeon, himself a smoker, has 
brought forward the idea that normal men smoke 




Theodore Roosevelt 






Count Leo Tolsto\ 



Chief Justice Taft 




Chas. E. Hughes. Sec. of State 



Luther Burbank 



Non-Smokers 



SMOKERS' APOLOGIES 137 

to relieve the friction of living, and to create a 
sort of "second personality," an easy-going char- 
acter which forgets "conventions'' and surrenders 
to primitive sense enjoyment, as a means of re- 
laxation from the strain and tension of civilized 
life, with its restrictions and repressions. 

Another physician, an alienist of some note, 
thinks tobacco is needed to create artificially the 
state of relaxation normally produced by rest. 

Neither of these writers considers the founda- 
mental question, "Are these artificial conditions 
created by alcohol [or tobacco] safe substitutes 
for physiologic rest, and is it a wholesome thing 
for men to be systematically and habitually re- 
leased from the restrictive conventions of life 
which form a part of the mores, of the culture 
of our day?" (Prof. Irving Fisher.) 

In other words, this effect of nicotine is really 
nothing other than a benumbing of the higher and 
critical functions of the mind, designed as aids 
to moral guidance and normal living. Certainly, 
no evidence has been offered to show that smokers 
are in any way superior mentally or morally to 
non-smokers ; the weight of evidence is, in fact, 
all to the opposite. 

Since smoking does not really rest the tired 
man, but only hides his sense of fatigue, it is evi- 
dent that it is no substitute for normal rest, and 
may do much harm by hiding from the smoker 
a knowledge of his real condition. 



138 TOBACCOISM 

If one needs relief from nervousness, there are 
far better means of lessening the tension than by 
tobacco. Rest, if necessary, and a warm, neutral 
bath will afford a wholesome relief such as no 
drug will give and will succeed even in cases 
where the most powerful drugs fail. This fact is 
demonstrated every day in the leading neuropathic 
institutes and state hospitals of the country. 

When a soothing drug is necessary, it should 
be administered by a physician and not by a street 
vendor or a bartender. Certainly, no well-inform- 
ed physician would select one of the most treach- 
erous and destructive of all the drugs known to 
man as the agent to be employed as a nerve quieter. 
Even opium does not produce the destructive 
changes in the body which have been shown ex- 
perimentally and clinically to be produced by to- 
bacco. 



How to Stop Smoking 

The way to stop smoking is TO STOP. For 
some persons to cease to smoke is easy; for others, 
it is difficult. 

The various classes of persons who use tobacco 
may be classified as follows: 

1. Those who smoke simply as a matter of so- 
ciability. 

2. Those who smoke from force of habit, just 
as others indulge in the habit of chewing gum. 

3. Those who smoke for the pleasure experi- 
enced. 

4. Those who smoke to relieve the discomfort 
and misery which is experienced in the absence 
of an accustomed indulgence. 

Little consideration need be given to the first 
three classes of smokers. A smoker of the first 
class, as soon as he becomes convinced of the 
evil effects of tobacco and of his duty as a man 
not only to abstain from doing damage to him- 
self, but from setting an example which may 
lead others to injure themselves through the for- 
mation of the pernicious habit, will abandon the 
practice. There is no obstacle in the way, be- 
cause the practice may be stopped without in- 
convenience. No "craving" or other inconveni- 
ence is experienced because the habit has not yet 
reached the stage of drug fascination. 

139 



140 TOBACCOISM 

Smokers of the second class may drop the habit 
with almost equal ease. For a short time there 
is felt a loss of the habitual excitation of the fifth 
nerve, a stimulation akin to that which is produced 
by scratching the head or biting the lip, or in 
some other way producing a slight irritation of 
the nerve of sensation of the face through which 
impressions are transmitted to the brain. Chew- 
ing gum or chewing a stick is often temporarily 
su&stituted for the cigar and with equally good 
effect. 

The third class of smokers appreciate the loss 
of the soothing effect they have been accustomed 
to find in the after-dinner pipe or cigar or the 
cigarette smoked after meals or at the close of 
the day's work. For such it is only necessary to 
form a good stiff resolution to forego the illicit 
and damaging temporary enjoyment which can 
only be experienced at the cost of later injury 
and suffering for which the pleasure experienced 
can afford no adequate compensation. 

It is with the fourth class of smokers that the 
real tug of war occurs. The confirmed smoker 
who has reached that point at which the cigar, 
pipe, or cigarette is necessary to prevent nervous- 
ness, irritability, mental confusion and incapacity 
for work or pleasure and to enable him to center 
his mind upon work' or study, and to maintain the 
mental poise essential for effectual activity, will 
undergo a real test of character in any attempt 
to escape from the toils of the tobacco habit. 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 141 

Persons of this class are compelled to make 
a determined struggle. When the cigar is thrown 
away, they suffer in essentially the same way as 
the victims of any other drug habit. Persons of 
this class have usually been great smokers, often 
incessant smokers. They are usually of a highly 
nervous temperament, and, generally, to a pro- 
nounced degree, neurasthenic. ,. 

The neurasthenia may be largely or only in 
small part due to tobacco. Not infrequently, in 
fact, the tobacco habit has been formed very large- 
ly through the effort to find in the cigar relief 
from the distressing neurasthenic symptoms, 
which are the natural result of sedentary habits, 
constipation, with its resulting autointoxication, 
loss of sleep, worry and other causes which waste 
and exhaust the nervous energies. 

Persons of this class often make for themselves 
the discovery that tobacco is an injury. They 
find that relief is only obtainable by a continually 
increased consumption of tobacco. Either more 
cigars or stronger cigars are required to produce 
the effects which were formerly produced by a 
single mild cigar or even a cigarette. 

Such persons often try again and again to eman- 
cipate themselves from the smoke habit, but on 
renouncing the cigar have found themselves so 
utterly incapable of sustained effort that the at- 
tempt is speedily abandoned, and often with full 
knowledge of the damage to heart, lungs or other 



142 TOBACCOISM 

organs that was being done by smoking, and an 
appreciation of the fact that life was being short- 
ened by continuing the habit. 

Such a person, to be successful in escaping from 
the toils of the tobacco habit, must organize and 
perseveringly maintain a systematic and unrelent- 
ing campaign. He must say, with the heroic Pat- 
rick Henry, "Give me liberty, or give me death." 

Here are a few practical suggestions which if 
faithfully followed may be relied upon to secure 
the freedom of any victim of the drug who has 
sufficient character and resolution to make a per- 
severing effort. 

It should be said that these suggestions are not 
presented on theoretical grounds. They have been 
successfully employed in dealing with the cases 
of thousands of tobacco-users who have visited 
the Battle Creek Sanitarium, an institution in 
which the use of tobacco in any form is not tol- 
erated. It is a matter of common observation 
that the diet of the institution somehow destroys 
the appetite for tobacco. Many smokers find 
themselves quite unable to smoke at all after 
having taken a few meals in the Sanitarium dining- 
room, and nearly all notice that the desire for to- 
bacco is lessened to such a degree that it is 
little or no trouble to drop the habit altogether. 

Any reader who may be a victim and desires 
to free himself from this pernicious enemy of life 
and health, and who finds himself unable to ac- 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 143 

complish his desire by the aid above offered, is 
cordially invited to write the author, who will 
gladly offer, without charge, any suggestion or ad- 
vice which may seem suited to the case. 

Suggestion 1. 

The decision to renounce tobacco in any form 
must be fully and definitely made. The subject 
must be thoroughly convinced that tobacco is an 
evil thing, possessed of a most pernicious potency 
— an enemy which must be fought with energy 
and determination, and with no thought of compromise. 

First of all, let the smoker be assured that to- 
bacco is not in any way sustaining or supporting 
him, that it supplies no bodily need, that it has 
not by "second nature" or in any other way be- 
come essential to life. 

No matter how distressing may be the sensa- 
tions of the habitual smoker when deprived of his 
tobacco, he may be assured that his misery and 
distress do not indicate any danger to life, but are 
simply due to the awakening to normal activity 
of nerves and sensibilities which have long been 
obscured by the influence of the narcotic drug. 
The distress may be hard to bear, but nobody ever 
died as the result of it. In fact a person when 
comfortable under the influence of a cigar is much 
nearer to the danger line than when suffering 
and distressed in the absence of the cigar. It is 
to be remembered that the cigar is nothing but 



144 TOBACCOISM 

a camouflage. It hides pain and distress, but it 
does not remove the cause of it, but rather is it- 
self a cause — a wolf in sheep's clothing — an enemy 
wearing the garb of a friend. 

Having determined to stop smoking definitely 
and permanently, a man who ha thoroughly in- 
formed himself respecting the haim tobacco does, 
should fortify his mind with a compelling array 
of all the mischiefs done by this mighty destroyer 
of man and manhood. He should have clearly 
and constantly before his mind's eye a vision of 
the evils wrought by the smoke demon upon brain, 
heart, blood, blood-vessels, liver, kidneys and every 
bodily structure. He should keep ever before him 
a vision of the high blood-pressure, Bright's dis- 
ease, angina pectoris, apoplexy, insomnia, pre- 
mature senility and emasculated manhood which 
are the certain consequences of continuing the 
smoking habit. He must become thoroughly con- 
vinced that for him it is nothing short of slow 
suicide. He must see in the cigar, the pipe, the 
cigarette, an enemy that is attacking him, — the "Old 
Man of the Sea" that is dragging him down to 
death. This attitude of mind must be resolutely 
cultivated by a continual reiteration of the mis- 
chievous effects which tobacco is known to pro- 
duce and particularly of the personal injuries 
which have been suffered. 

By training the mind to think in this channel, 
never once yielding to the temptation "to take a 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 145 

few whiffs, not enough to do any harm," and al- 
ways holding tobacco before the mind as an im- 
placable enemy, a hideous fiend, a devouring fire 
which must be extinguished, a mental barrier may 
be created which will serve as a wall of de- 
fense, and, in the majority of cases, the desire for 
the drug will q ickly disappear. But there must 
be no temporizing, no dilly-dallying, no com- 
promise. 

Never for a moment should the thought of to- 
bacco as a solace, a friend, and comforter be enter- 
tained. By maintaining this sturdy, belligerent at- 
titude toward the habit, a psychologic antidote for 
the tobacco "craving" will be developed, and often 
this may be accomplished in a surprisingly short 
time. 

Mark Twain, who once discarded tobacco in 
obedience to his physician's orders, affirmed that 
the only proper cure for the tobacco habit was to 
cease to want to smoke, which, although an in- 
veterate smoker, he found to be easy to do when 
the right mental attitude was assumed. 

Suggestion 2. 

It is a great help to change the environment and 
the occupation for a short time, so as to escape so 
far as possible, from the conditions and influences 
which automatically suggest the habit; that is, to 
escape from association with smokers and "mak- 
ings," pipes, spittoons, ash trays and even matches, 



146 TOBACCOISM 

every association which smells of smoke or smok- 
ers. An outing, an automobile trip, any sort of 
out-of-door excursion, will serve to divert the mind 
and to refresh and energize the body, and silence 
the clamoring of the nerves for the accustomed 
indulgence. 

Suggestion 3. 

Stimulants of all sorts must be discarded along 
with the tobacco. Alcohol and tobacco are twin 
evils each of which assists the other in enslaving 
and destroying the body. Alcohol dilates the 
blood-vessels and tobacco contracts them ; hence, 
one drug is in a certain sense an antidote for the 
other, and creates a demand for it. The man who 
smokes feels tense and drinks a cocktail to relieve 
the tension. The toper follows his beer or grog 
with a pipe or a cigar for the very opposite reason. 

Suggestion 4. 

It is likewise important to discard stimulating 
foods, such as mustard, pepper, peppersauce, gin- 
ger and hot spices and sauces of all kinds. These 
all have the effect to create a nerve tension which 
causes a craving for alcohol as an antidote. Even 
flesh foods should be discarded for a similar rea- 
son, because of the tension created by the uric 
acid in meat. Tea and coffee should be discarded 
because of the very marked and injurious influence 
of caffeine, which is a nerve poison and a habit. 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 147 

Suggestion 5. 

Clinical experience has shown that there is a 
certain remarkable antagonism between certain 
foodstuffs and tobacco. This is particularly true 
of carbohydrates, that is, starch and sugar, espe- 
cially as found in cereals, potatoes and fresh 
fruits. Milk, when frequently taken, seems to have 
a similar effect. Patients who are taking the milk 
regimen quickly lose their desire for tobacco. The 
same is true of the fruit regimen. (For full in- 
formation concerning these regimens, see Autointoxi- 
cation, Modern Medicine Co., Battle Creek, Mich.) 

On the other hand, a diet rich in meats, with 
condiments of any sort, and the usual accompani- 
ments, tea and coffee, tend strongly to promote the 
craving for tobacco and hence are obstacles in the 
way of escaping from the toils of the habit. 

While the shortest and best way out is to take 
up arms against all these enemies and discard them 
at once and forever, it is not every victim of these 
enslaving drugs that has the resolution or the dis- 
position to do so. Such may adopt a more grad- 
ual process of elimination, but should do so with 
the full knowledge that in the aggregate the in- 
convenience will be considerably increased by the 
length of the process instead of diminished. As a 
matter of fact, if all the associated poisons are 
eliminated at once, the battle, though perhaps 
more intense, is usually in a short time complete- 



148 TOBACCOISM 

ly won ; and if there is no dallying with the temp- 
ter, but strict adherence to a non-stimulating regi- 
men, the agents of illicit pleasure and physical de- 
struction, will be easily and soon forgotten. 

If what might be termed "the graduated method" 
is to be adopted, proceed as follows : 

The first week discard tobacco. If coffee has 
been regularly used, take one cup only at each 
meal and no more. Don't increase the coffee to 
make up for the non-use of tobacco. This would 
only be substituting one drug habit for another. 

The second week discard coffee, "change the flora, 
and adopt the antitoxic diet. ( See the Simple Life in 
a Nutshell 9 and "Autointoxication" Modern Medi- 
cine Publishing Co.) 

Suggestion 6. 

Most great smokers are neurasthenic. They smoke 
to relieve various neurasthenic mental or nervous 
symptoms. The neurasthenia, which has long been a 
constant provocative cause for the resort to cigar or 
cigarette must be cured. In a majority of cases, the 
cause is chronic constipation and resulting auto- 
intoxication. The cure for neurasthenia is to be found 
not in the use of drugs of any sort — all of them are 
useless, even worse than useless — but in living biolog- 
ically. This means living upon a natural diet, a diet 
in which meats of all kinds are excluded, along with 
irritating condiments, mustard, pepper, peppersauce, 
etc. — the "antitoxic diet." 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 149 

The biologic life also requires an abundance of out- 
door exercise, open-air sleeping, that is, sleeping with 
wide-open windows or on a sleeping porch, and whole- 
some relations to life in all particulars. 

Suggestion 7. 

The activity of the bowels must be increased so as 
to keep the colon free from putrefying residues, one 
of the most active provocative causes of smoking, as 
well as other drug habits. The products of putrefac- 
tion are absorbed into the blood and, circulating 
through the body, give rise to morbid mental and 
nervous symptoms and conditions which clamor for 
relief, which is temporarily given by both alcohol and 
tobacco. Constipation and autointoxication are thus 
active causes of intemperance and of the tobacco habit. 
The neurasthenic smokes because in so doing he finds 
temporary relief from the miseries which accompany 
his malady. Removal of this cause of discomfort is 
one of the first and most necessary steps to be taken 
toward the cure of the tobacco habit. The cure is to 
be found in a "change of the intestinal flora,' , thus 
suppressing putrefaction in the colon by the adoption 
of an antitoxic diet and the employment of such tonic 
and other physical and psychologic measures as may 
be necessary to overcome the patient's neurasthenic 
condition. 

Suggestion 8. 

The extreme nervousness, often accompanied by 
sleeplessness, which results from the disuse of tobacco 



150 TOBACCOISM 

in certain cases, may be very certainly relieved by a 
very thorough-going use of the neutral bath. This is 
a full bath taken at 92 to 96 degrees F., just warm 
enough to be comfortable. It should be continued fif- 
teen to thirty minutes, or even longer if necessary to 
produce a disposition to sleep. The duration of the 
bath may be extended to an hour or two or even more 
in extreme cases. It is always successful when per- 
severingly employed. In getting out of the bath, care 
must be taken to avoid getting chilled, even to the 
slightest degree, as this will quite destroy the bene- 
ficial effect of the bath. 

The effects of this bath are really wonderful. Within 
the last twenty years it has almost entirely superceded 
the use of hypnotics and narcotics in State insane hos- 
pitals in the management of disturbed cases, and has 
rendered unnecessary the use of the straight jacket and 
other means of physical restraint. 

A person seeking relief from the tobacco habit 
should take a neutral bath regularly every night at 
bedtime, and should remain in the bath until decidedly 
drowsy, going then directly to bed, taking care to 
avoid the slightest chill, the effect of which would be 
to destroy the favorable influence of the bath. 

The electric light bath or some other form of sweat- 
ing bath is highly valuable as a means of hastening 
the elimination of the nicotine. Normal conditions 
cannot be established until every particle of nicotine is 
removed from the blood and tissues. This often re- 
quires several days for the reason that in persons who 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 151 

have long indulged quite freely in the use of tobacco, 
the liver and kidneys have become so damaged that 
the nicotine is not eliminated promptly, as at first, and 
so accumulates, saturating the tissues. In such a per- 
son, the odor of tobacco "hangs on the breath'' for 
hours after a cigar has been smoked. The sooner the 
nicotine can be gotten out of the system, the sooner 
the discomforts, physical and mental, arising from the 
attempt to break the habit will disappear. 

When there is a feeling of weakness in the abdomen, 
an abdominal supporter should be worn. A tight 
bandage may render some service. 

Suggestion 9. 

The cold morning bath is an excellent means of 
combating the condition of exhaustion or lowered 
"tone," of which the patient becomes conscious on dis- 
carding tobacco. Cold water is one of the most pow- 
erful of all known tonics. When applied to the gen- 
eral surface of the body, it sends into the brain and 
spinal cord, stomach, liver and every vital organ, a 
fusillade of nerve impulses, which acts as a vital stim- 
ulus. If the patient is obliged to dress in a cold room, 
an air bath will suffice. On removing the sleeping 
garments, the bare skin should be exposed to the cold 
air while being vigorously rubbed with a coarse towel. 
He should exercise at the same time vigorously so as 
to promote the blood circulation and warming of the 
skin. After a minute or two, if the temperature of 



152 TOBACCOISM 

the air is quite low, the patient should return to the 
warm bed until a good reaction has developed and a 
warm glow felt over the whole surface of the body, 
and then dress. 

In general, a cold towel rub, or a cold shower bath, 
or a dip in a tub of cold water is to be preferred. The 
cold water bath should be taken in a warm bathroom. 
It should be followed by a vigorous rubbing and thor- 
ough drying of the skin. It is well, also, to apply to 
the whole surface a little lanolin cream, of which the 
following is the formula: 

Lanolin 2 drams 

Boro-glyceride 1 dram 

Cold cream made with white vaseline 6 drams 

Suggestion 10. 

Patients who suffer much from great depression 
will be greatly helped by hot and cold applications to 
the spine. Such an application consists of a hot 
fomentation applied to the whole length of the spine 
for four or five minutes, followed by rubbing with a 
piece of ice which is rapidly moved up and down the 
spine. The fomentation is usually applied three times, 
each time being followed by the ice rubbing. 

The moist abdominal bandage worn at night is a 
capital means of relieving the congestion and sympa- 
thetic nerve irritation which generally exist in the 
abdominal region. Tobacco has a particularly per- 
nicious effect upon the sympathetic nervous system, 
and this injury expresses itself especially through the 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 153 

great sympathetic centers located at the epigastrium 
and in the region of the umbilicus. 

It is well to apply a fomentation over the abdomen 
for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, followed by a 
moist abdominal bandage to be worn during the night 
or even constantly for a week or two. This applica- 
tion consists essentially of a towel wrung out of cold 
water as dry as possible, wrapped around the body and 
covered with dry flannel. The covering should be 
thoroughly done, so that no portion of the moist 
bandage is exposed. The flannel wrapping should be 
thick enough to secure a quick warming of the towel, 
and to keep it warm. Both bandages should be ap- 
plied snugly. 

Suggestion 11. 

Free water drinking is of very great value in cases 
of this sort. Three quarts of water should be taken 
every twenty-four hours. A good plan is to take a 
little water every half hour. The water may be taken 
either hot or cold. If ice water is taken, it should be 
sipped very slowly. Diluted fruit juices may be used 
instead of plain water and with benefit. 

Suggestion 12. 

There is no drug antidote for tobacco which is not 
as bad as the tobacco itself, but rinsing the mouth 
with a solution of nitrate of silver, two or three grains 
to the ounce, temporarily destroys the taste for tobacco, 
and so lessens, if it does not entirely destroy, the 



154 TOBACCOISM 

craving for the drug. When the craving occurs, rinse 
the mouth with a spoonful of the solution and seek 
some diversion for mind and body. A capsule con- 
taining one one-hundredth of a grain of nitrate of 
silver, with a small quantity of sugar, has been used 
with some apparent benefit. This is chewed up and 
dissolved in the mouth. 

The chewing of gum or of licorice or sarsaparilla 
root has also rendered some service; but such 
remedies should of course be relied upon only to a very 
limited extent and that during a brief period. The real 
remedy is to be found in setting the mind, the con- 
science and the will, resolutely against the drug and 
fighting it with manly courage and determination. 

Suggestion 13. 

Whenever possible, the patient should spend two or 
three weeks at a sanitarium while learning to get along 
without the drug, so that he may have an opportunity 
at the same time to form habits of biologic liv- 
ing which may relieve him of many habits and dis- 
orders that are leading strings to the drug habit as 
well as other enslaving influences. 

Stumbling Blocks. 

Many smokers excuse themselves for the indul- 
gence of the habit on the ground that smoking is 
necessary to relieve some physical ailment or in- 
convenience, often quoting the advice of some phy- 
sician who has recommended tobacco as a remedy. 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 155 

It must be admitted that in most case the apology 
is a lame one, and is, in fact, nothing more nor less 
than a camouflage for the desire to smoke. Few 
smokers are willing to confess that they are the vic- 
tims of a drug habit ; some smokers are not. Those 
who are really enthralled are naturally willing to 
conceal the fact even from themselves if they can. 
Here are some of the excuses given for smoking: 
"1 cannot think without my cigar. 9 ' Many a busi- 
ness man holds his cigar in his mouth, unconscious 
as to whether it is lighted or not lighted. The stim- 
ulation of the fifth nerve, the nerve of sensation of 
the face, reflexly excites mental activity. When 
thinking hard, one man will bite his lip ; another 
scowls; another scratches his head; another bites 
his finger nails ; another chews gum ; another presses 
the upper lip, or his cheek or his temple with the 
finger ; another takes a pinch of snuff or lights a 
cigar, or simply places a cigar in his mouth. These 
are all different ways of stimulating the fifth nerve. 
If the use of tobacco were as harmless as biting the 
lip or scratching the head or even no worse than 
chewing gum, the chief objections to its use would 
disappear. 

It is easy to see that whatever advantage is gain- 
ed from tobacco as a means of stimulating the fifth 
nerve, may be as easily secured in some other harm- 
less way, as by chewing a bit of licorice or gensing 
root or sweet flag. 



156 TOBACCOISM 

u l am nervous when I do not smoke" Many men 
find in tobacco a solace which they are reluctant to 
relinquish. Without the accustomed cigar the 
smoker finds himself restless, nervous, dissatisfied, 
unhappy, nerves shaking, hands trembling, mind 
confused, inability to concentrate attention, inde- 
cision. A cigar or a cigarette temporarily dissipates 
these discomforts, but of course each time leaves the 
patient more nervous than before. Such a person is 
a neurasthenic. The smoking may be in whole or 
in part the cause of the neurasthenia; or, which is 
generally the case, the neurasthenia may be due to 
autointoxication, the result of chronic constipa- 
tion or of colitis. These conditions must be reme- 
died by proper treatment. In other words, the 
neurasthenia must be cured, and for this the disuse 
of tobacco is first of all essential. A real cure in 
such a case is practically impossible so long as the 
patient continues to smoke. Such a patient requires 
institutional care for a month or six weeks, which 
will afford an opportunity for a "change of the in- 
testinal flora" and the formation of biologic habits, 
by the aid of which he may be able to live a com- 
fortable, happy and efficient life without resorting to 
the "smoke screen" for consolation or steadiness. 

"1 smoke because I am lonesome. I miss my family, 
my wife and my little ones. A cigar comforts me." 

Said a well-known clergyman to the writer: "My 
cigar is my refuge when I am overwhelmed with the 
worries and griefs which my parishioners confide in 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 157 

me." A humiliating confession ! Are there not 
adequate moral or spiritual and psychologic reme- 
dies for the mental and moral tempests from which 
one must sometimes feel compelled to take refuge? 
Certainly, the resort to a narcotic drug as a cure for 
psychic ills seems to be an admission of a complete 
breakdown of one's spiritual and mental resources. 

And the refuge habit involves a danger of no in- 
considerable proportions. Not a few of the wor- 
ries, anxieties and troubles of life must be inevitably 
faced and mastered. To bury them in a fog of nar- 
cosis is only to follow the example of the foolish 
ostrich, which in the face of danger, hides its head 
in the sand. Will the smoker maintain that he em- 
ploys his cigarette "solace" with discretion, denying 
himself the magic of this chemical comfort in every 
case in which fine discrimination, keen and well-bal- 
anced judgment and unclouded intelligence will best 
contribute to the removal of the cause or solution 
of the problems involved? 

The complete answer to the plea that men need 
tobacco as a solace is to be found in the fact that 
few men are willing to share this pleasure of smok- 
ing with their wives, notwithstanding that the aver- 
age wife has fully as large a burden of worries to 
carry as has the average man, and is less able to 
bear them, and certainly feels them no less keenly. 

u l suffer from headache." The headache and de- 
pression from which the reforming smoker some- 
times suffers usually departs with a warm bath and 



158 TOBACCOISM 

a night's sleep. Rest in a horizontal position is most 
beneficial. Within a few days the depressed nerve 
tone will be restored, the circulatory balance will be 
recovered and the tobacco headache will disappear. 

For these restorative changes to take place, it is 
necessary that the last trace of nicotine should be 
eliminated from the blood. The process of elimin- 
ation may be greatly encouraged by eliminative 
treatment, such as hot baths, the electric light bath, 
the sweating pack, and especially by the copious 
drinking of water. One or two glasses should be 
taken every hour, totalling not less than three or 
four quarts daily. 

"I smoke to aid digestion/' Many smokers claim 
to find the after-dinner cigar a relief from certain 
symptoms of indigestion, particularly sour stomach 
or hyperacidity. It is known experimentally that 
tobacco lessens gastric activity and impairs diges- 
tion, and hence its influence on the stomach is not 
beneficial, but the opposite; nevertheless, being a 
narcotic, it is capable of producing temporary relief 
from discomfort. The same relief, however, may be 
obtained by much more efficient and satisfactory 
measures which are not merely palliative but actually 
curative. For example, acidity may be relieved by 
taking one or two teaspoonsful of olive oil, by the 
use of soft foods which require little mastication, 
avoidance of meats, tea, coffee and condiments, and 
by such other dietetic measures as are indicated for 
the relief of hyperacidity. 



HOW TO STOP SMOKING 159 

As a curative measure, tobacco proves to be a 
remedy which is "worse than the disease." It is a 
very common thing for smokers to offer as an apol- 
ogy for smoking the fact that a bowel movement 
usually follows the after-breakfast smoke, and is often 
missed when the cigar is omitted. Here, again, we 
have a case in which the remedy is, if not worse, at 
least as bad, as the disease. Constipation may be 
relieved by the use of bran, mineral oil and suitable 
attention to the diet. Certainly there is no occasion 
for smoking to induce bowel action when there are 
excellent remedies for this condition which are 
easily accessible and wholly harmless. 

u l smoke because of nose trouble!' Cigarette 
smokers sometimes insist that the cigarette is a 
necessity to them because of its efficiency in "clear- 
ing the head," and relieving the stuffed feeling in 
the nose, the result of the thickened condition of 
the mucous membrane. The cigarette affords tem- 
porary relief in chronic nasal disease only at the ex- 
pense of making the trouble worse. The services 
of an intelligent nose specialist are required. In 
most cases, prompt relief will be given by the use 
of the Pocket Vaporizer. The relief afforded by the 
cigarette is temporary and delusive. The final re- 
sult is always an aggravation of the difficulty. 

"I am compelled to smoke to relieve asthma/' 
Certain cases of asthma are relieved by the inhala- 
tion of the fumes of tobacco as well as the inhala- 
tion of cubebs and various other drugs. It is uni- 



160 TOBACCOISM 

versally known that the relief thus obtained is 
merely temporary and that other measures must be 
relied upon to affect a cure. When other measures 
are applied, the necessity for temporizing measures 
disappears. 

In most of these cases, the cause of the asthma is 
found in infection of the colon, or colitis, and auto- 
intoxication, and the asthma quickly disappears 
when the causes of the conditions are remedied. 

Tobacco "Cures" 

There are no drug substitutes or antidotes for to- 
bacco. Any drug which will take its place will be 
found equally injurious if not more harmful. The 
various advertised "cures" are "fakes." They have 
been condemned after a thorough investigation by 
the Journal of the American Medical Association, 
The only "cure" is to be found in a resolute aban- 
donment of the drug and of all drugs of similar 
nature, with the aid of such help as may be given 
by biologic living and the use of baths and other 
physiologic means. 



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